


The Disappearance of Clara Wilson

by LynnyB



Category: Miss Scarlet and the Duke (TV 2020)
Genre: Gen, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29898132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynnyB/pseuds/LynnyB
Summary: Eliza Scarlet is hired to look into the disappearance of a young girl, Clara Wilson, but finds there's more to her going missing then she first throught
Relationships: Eliza Scarlet/William "Duke" Wellington
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, I'm just borrowing them to keep myself entertained during these strange times. I promise to put them back where I found them. Thank you to the wonderful Rachael New for creating these wonderful characters, and the amazing cast for bringing them to life.

Part 1

It was London in the year 1882. The sun was shinning as Eliza Scarlet walked towards Scotland Yard. The skirt of her blue dress swaying with her steps, her matching deep blue hat angled on her head keeping the sun from her eyes. It was a familiar route to walk now, and she did it almost daily these days.

Sometimes it was to get some information from Detective Inspector William Wellington, The Duke to his colleagues, for a case she was on, occasionally he was letting her help with one of his cases, and mostly it was just because she just liked to annoy him on a daily basis.

Horse and carriages trotted passed in the lane, as she walked under the bridge before the office entrance. Street people and the upper class passed her on their way towards the Thames, just a stones throw away. Discreetly Eliza turned left and up the front steps into the reception area.

She smiled at the Desk Sargent, Alfred, as she walked in the door and passed the booking in desk, letting herself into the main building. Alfred was so used to seeing her walk in that he barely lifted his eyes from his paperwork.

William's office door was open, but he wasn't in it, so as usual she put her bag on his desk and made herself comfortable in his chair on the far side of his desk. She picked up the top closed file from his pile and glanced over the paperwork inside. It was an old case file from 2 months earlier, and according to the notes the family were looking for an update. Sara Gilbert, 23, reported missing by her father, but found dead 3 days later by the Thames with her throat slit.

Eliza picked up the black and white crime scene photo's that accompanied the written report. It was a grizzly scene, with the photo's being taken on the banks of the Thames, though the body didn't look dumped, more placed there with care. She was fully dressed, with her gold necklace still on her, and there was no signs of assault or injury other then the slit throat. The report also noted that the girl hadn't been killed where her body had been left. There was very little evidence for the police to follow up on.

"Eliza." William's voice made her jump, as he walked into his office and saw her sitting in his seat. William was used to seeing her in his office these days, she often let herself in, but it still surprised him to see her sitting at his desk.

"William," she looked up and smiled, giving him her best innocent smile and resting her chin on her hand. He was dressed in his familiar black suit and navy blue patterned waistcoat. His dark hair perfectly styled and his beard had been freshly trimmed.

"Eliza, what have I told you about reading the files on my desk." His Scottish accent always sounded thicker when he was annoyed with her, as he walked over and took the file off her. He closed it and placed it back on the top of his pile.

"Well it's about time someone looked at these files," she teased, motioning to the tall pile of files on his desk that she thought never seemed to get smaller.

"3 murders, 2 assaults, 1 robbery, and 1 arson..." he reeled off, almost to prove he had looked at each file, and confirming he knew exactly what each file was, even if he hadn't fully worked through them.

"Now I assume you're not here to question my workload…?" William motioned for her to move out of his seat, but Eliza didn't move.

"I need to look at a missing persons report…" William eyed her suspiciously.

"Clara Wilson. Her parents reported her missing nearly 5 months ago but as yet have heard nothing from the police."

"You do realize I'm busy, with my own work."

"It will take you 5 minutes to grab one file…. Plus, it's my birthday, so you have to be nice to me." Eliza smiled her best smile, the kind that lite up her eyes, and she knew always got William to do what she needed, while William just shook his head.

"Stay here, … and don't read anymore of my files."

"Of course…." She lied with a shrug, as she watched him walked out of his office and turned towards the archive room, then she picked up the next file in the pile to read.

A short while later, William returned with the file in his hand, and noted that Eliza was still sat on his side of the desk, reading yet another of his files.

"One missing persons file," He said, closing the file she was reading. "Now can I have my desk back?"

"Thank you," she smiled, standing up and taking the file from him. She moved round to the other side of his desk and sat down as she looked over the file he'd given her.

"Is this it?" She asked him.

"Yes," he replied, sitting at his desk and pulling open his own work.

"Two flimsy pieces of paper, and a family photograph…" She seemed surprised.

"Don't look at me, it's not my case," William said, almost defensively.

"Has anyone even investigated her disappearance?"

"Look," William sighed, "She's a young girl, probably met someone unsuitable and run off with him. You'd be surprised how often that happens, and with no evidence of any wrongdoing there's not a lot for us to investigate."

"But her family said here that she had no man in her life, and no reason to run away…"

"That they knew of…" He reasoned. Eliza thought for a moment. Could someone really just disappear? Certainly her father had investigated a large number of missing persons that the police seemed not to have the time to look through.

"Any unidentified bodies that would match her description?" Elisa queried.

"How would I know?" William was starting to sound frustrated, and Eliza knew she was pushing her luck with him.

"Well can I go and check the archive room?"

"No you cannot, you're not allowed in the archive room, and before you ask, no I don't have time to look for you." William tried to busy himself with his work, as if to end the discussion, but Eliza wasn't one to take no for an answer.

"What's your new Detective Phillips like?" She asked, slightly changing the subject, since she had only briefly met the young man on a few occasions. However, William knew exactly what she was doing.

"He's busy, working on something for me."

"Hhhmm… How's he settling in by the way?" A change of tactic usually worked.

"Aside from the fact he's nearly always 20 minutes late, because he's gotten lost, and he's far too cheery. Clearly he's not done the job long enough to lose that yet. Now are we done here, because I have my own work to get on with?"

That was her cue, that he was done helping her, at least for now. Well she might have lost this battle, but the war wasn't over with yet.

"Fine. I'll bring this back later," she said, motioning to the missing person's file she was about to walk out with.

"I thought you said that wasn't useful," William grumbled.

"Well, who knows, might be something in here. Good day William." She smiled at him and picked her bag off his desk, before turning to leave.

"Oh and Eliza…"

"Yes," she replied, turning around as she got to his doorway.

"Happy birthday," he smiled, the warm, kind smile that reached his eyes. The one she couldn't help but return.

Outside William's office, Detective Phillips seemed to waiting for her, as he moved towards her when he saw her leave William's office. He was a tall, slim young man, with sandy blonde hair, and dressed in a suit that was clearly too big for him. Perhaps the suit was handed down to him, Eliza wondered, maybe by a brother, or his father.

"Miss Scarlet," he smiled.

"Detective Phillips," Eliza smiled back. Phillips seemed nice, kind, and currently, far easier to get round and use to her advantage then his predecessor. Though William had clearly given him some warning that she wasn't to be 100 percent trusted.

"Can I walk you out Miss?"

"If you'd like," Eliza said, her guard slightly raised.

She usually liked to slip in and out of Scotland Yard, without an escort. It was bad enough half of William's men seemed to think she was William's latest tart, without any suggestions of her running around with yet another officer.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something," Phillips asked, as they made their way outside and down the front steps.

"Me?" Eliza was confused as they rounded the corner, slightly out of view of the main steps. What help could he need from her?

"Yes," he was fidgeting uncomfortably, and seemed slightly nervous. "Look, I really need this job, and I'm not sure I've made the best first impression with The Duke… I'm new to London and I am still working out my way around, and well it's easy to get lost on these streets…."

"And I can help you with this?" Eliza looked at him confused, was he looking for a tour guide?

"Well, I was talking to some of the lads, and they said that you and The Duke are friendly, and I thought that maybe…."

"Friendly How?" Eliza interrupted, and questioned sternly. Her face suddenly seemed very serious. What exactly were the rumors around Scotland Yard about them?

"I'm not sure…. I just thought perhaps you could put in a good word for me with The Duke…." Phillips trailed off, and suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable under Eliza's gaze.

"You want me to put in a good word for you with Detective Inspector Wellington?" She confirmed, while Phillips regarded her, and judged her words and tone carefully.

"Why do I get the feeling I've been set up?" Phillips replied, silently cursing his new work colleagues for clearly setting him up for a fall.

"Oh I wouldn't possibly know…" She smiled sarcastically, with an annoyance in her tone. What exactly would it take for her to be taken seriously as a private detective?

"You know, can we just forget this conversation?" Detective Phillips was suddenly trying to back track and Eliza took a moment before speaking.

"Inspector Wellington choses who he works with, and I can assure you, that my opinion on that would not be welcome." Phillips nodded and turned to almost run away. "However, if you want my advice… work hard, do a good job and earn his respect. It will take longer, but will be worth it in the long run." Phillips breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you Miss Scarlet. Could we maybe not mention this to him?"

"Mention what?" She smiled. This new detective might just be okay.

To be continued...


	2. Part 2

Part 2

Eliza climbed the stairs to her office, having somehow avoided Herr Hildgard, the German undertaker, who ran the funeral directors shop next door to her office. He was incredibly chatty, and always wanted to speak with her, for a long time.

She also needed avoid and the evil stares of Fraulein Tilly Hildgard, his niece. She'd clearly made an enemy of Tilly thanks to her friend, Mr Rupert Parker, telling her it was Eliza's suggestion he should decline her proposal of marriage. Having said that, she wasn't sure they would ever have been firm friends regardless.

She opened the glass office door with her fathers name hand painted on, and hung up her hat on the wall hanger before closing the door and turning to glance over at her desk. A small smile crept over her face. Someone had been in there, and left a small gift box and a folded note on her desk.

Slowly she walked over and put her bag down on her desk and pulled off her gloves. She picked up the note and unfolded the small piece of paper to read it. It was a short simple note in what was now a familiar written script.

Happy Birthday. W.

The sneaky bugger! He'd clearly let himself in with his key to her office to leave it here. He obviously knew it was her birthday, even though he'd looked like he didn't when she'd mentioned it earlier.

With a half smile she put down the note then picked up the small black present box and took the lid off. Inside was a small gold signature style E on a thin gold chain.

Eliza was surprised. William had never bought her a gift before, let alone something like this. She wasn't sure what to make of this gift. Certainly they'd been a little friendlier towards each other since solving her father's murder, but this gift felt a little different.

Still, she thought for a moment, before removing it from the box, undoing the clasp, and putting it round her neck. She held the pendent in her fingers smiling at it, before tucking it in her shirt, hiding it away from view. She picked up a fresh piece of paper from her desk and a pencil, and wrote a quick note before folding it up and leaving her office.

Outside she found a street boy leaning against a wall, watching everyone walking past, minding his own business.

"Hello young man," she regarded him, and he quickly stood up straight as if he wondered if he was about to get into trouble.

"How do you fancy making a few pennies?"

The lad's eyes lit up at the thought, while Eliza put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a few coins.

"I need you to take this note to Scotland Yard, and give it directly to Detective Inspector Wellington. Can you do that?"

"Yes Miss," the lad said excitedly. He was egger as she handed him the note, but held back the coins.

"Directly to Inspector Wellington," she confirmed, he nodded, then she handed him the money. He quickly took off down the street, in the direction of Scotland Yard, while Eliza turned round to go back to her office, wondering if she could once again avoid Herr Hildgard.

Back at her desk, Eliza looked over the little information contained in the police missing person report for Clara Wilson. She was only 22. She lived with her father, a shop manager, and her mother, a housewife. She was their oldest child, with a younger sister who was 16. From the family photo contained in the file, they seemed like a nice normal working class family. She wasn't sure this file was going to help her track down this missing girl, or give her uncle any news when he turned up shortly.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Scotland Yard, William was just about to pick up his coat and hat from the hat stand by his office door. He was readying himself to head out to do some interviews when he heard a commotion outside in the corridor. Walking out his office into the corridor, he saw a small lad, surrounded by PC Honeychurch and 2 other tall uniformed constables, looking rather terrified.

"What's going on?" he queried walking towards them.

"Sorry Duke," PC Honeychurch answered. "This young lad's asking for you, but refuses to tell us why," PC Honeychurch told, him sounding rather frustrated with the lad for not co-operating with them.

William looked over the boy seriously. He had no idea why this child would be looking for him, but the boy seemed frightened, so he relaxed his stance.

"Well, if you're looking for me you'd better come into my office." William pointed to his office door, and the lad looked from the door to the officers, before bolting and rushing off inside the safety of the room. William just shook his head at the 3 officers.

"He's a child," he reprimanded, and gave the officers an unimpressed look before turn back into his office.

"What can I do for you?" William asked the boy, standing in the middle of his office. The young lad held out a folded piece of paper.

"The lady said I had to hand this directly to you."

"The lady?" William queried, confused as he took the note from him.

"She was smart and pretty. She paid me to bring you this. Said I had to give it directly to you and no one else," he said.

William read the note and laughed.

Noticed you let yourself into my office again. Thank you for my present. L

William wondered for a moment why she signed it L. He motioned with his finger to the boy to wait, while he moved to his desk, and wrote a reply.

"Here, take this back to the lady," William smiled, as he took a coin out of his pocket, and gave the note and the coin to the boy, who smiled a huge smile as he took both, and ran out of the office.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mr Colin Wilson, was Clara's uncle, and it was he who had hired Eliza to look into Clara's disappearance. He was due at Eliza's office soon to get an update, but as William had suggested, there wasn't a lot to go on.

According to the missing persons report, the day of her disappearance there was nothing out of the ordinary in Clara mood, or appearance. She was due to meet a friend, Abigail, for lunch, she'd left home at 11.15, but never turned up to meet her friend, and was reported missing by her father later that same evening.

She'd taken no clothing or trinkets with her, and only had a small handbag with her gloves, and a purse with just a few shillings to pay for food for lunch. The Police had searched her bedroom, but nothing gave any indication that she wasn't returning.

Eliza had looked over the newspaper clipping she'd saved from the week of Clara's disappearance but there was nothing of consequence in them. Eliza wasn't quite sure what information she could pass on. William was right, with this little evidence what was anyone supposed to investigate.

The loud knock at the office door interrupted the silence of her office. Eliza moved from her desk to open the door, and greeted Mr Wilson. He was a slightly older gentleman, tall, and well dressed, with a kind face, and dark greying hair. Seemingly money was not an option when it came to his clothes, as his dark black suit and patterned waistcoat looked expensive.

"Good morning Mr Wilson, please come in," Eliza smiled.

"Good morning Miss Scarlet." Mr Wilson spoke softly but confidently, as he nodded and removed his black hat.

He followed Eliza to her desk and sat down opposite her.

"I've been looking into Clara's disappearance, but unfortunately there isn't a lot to go on. I've found nothing of interest in the newspapers from around that time, and the police report is rather sparse."

"I appreciate your efforts Miss Scarlet, as you can imagine it's a very difficult time for all of us. It's just so out of character for her to not contact anyone, especially her mother or her sister." Eliza took in Mr Wilson's accent. He seemed incredibly posh for Clara's family background.

"How well did you know your niece?"

"Well I travel a lot, I do business all over the country, but I always saw Clara when I was in London, brought her gifts back from my travels. Between you and me, she was always my favourite." He had a nostalgic smile on his face, that couldn't hide the sadness in his eyes.

"Well the police report gives the name of the friend she was due to meet, so I'll contact her tomorrow and see if we can meet."

"Thank you."

"In the meantime, do you know of any other friends she may have confided in?"

"I'm afraid not," he shrugged.

"Perhaps, I might speak with Clara's parents, or her sister maybe?"

"I would rather you didn't, my sister is naturally devastated, and I just, I don't wish to upset her further knowing that I've asked you to look into this, and then there being no new hope of finding her." Eliza nodded understanding, however it would have helped to be able to speak to them directly.

"Of course. Well, please leave this with me for a few days, and I'll see what more I can discover. I'll be in contact once I have an update for you." Eliza could only hope that she'd have something more to tell him.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It wasn't long after Mr Wilson had left her office that Eliza was sat at her desk when she heard footsteps running up the stairs to her office door. Her door was pushed open, and the young lad she'd given her message for William to, barged straight into the office, somewhat breathless from running. She hadn't actually been expecting him to return.

"Hello Miss," he said catching his breath, and holding out another piece of paper.

"The Inspector told me to give you this." He stood on the opposite side of her desk, catching his breath, and Eliza smiled as she took it the note from him to read.

You're always letting yourself into my office! Glad you like it. W

Eliza read over his reply and laughed.

"Thank you," she smiled to the boy.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was getting late as Eliza left her office, and she was in a hurry. Ivy, her maid, was cooking her a birthday meal, and she couldn't be late. She accidentally caught the eye of Tilly Hildgard, who was standing outside her uncle's funeral shop.

Eliza smiled at her, but Tilly kept her quiet steely gaze on her, and Elisa moved hurriedly past, and away from her office, almost walking straight into William as he rounded the corner.

"Oh sorry," she stumbled backwards, as he caught her arm to steady her. "I didn't see you there." Eliza felt like she'd walked into a brick wall, but shook it off.

"You okay?" William asked, half laughing and stepping back from her.

Eliza shrugged and looked in the direction of Tilly, whose attention was fully on them, though her gaze no softer, and no telling if she was amused by what she had just seen, so Eliza wasn't sure if she was now watching her or William.

"If looks could kill," she laughed before turning her attention to William. "What are you doing here?"

"Figured I'd walk you home," he moved his arm for her.

"Really?" Eliza regarded him confused, as she linked his arm. It wasn't often that he turned up on her for no reason at all.

"Any update on your case?" He asked as they walked slowly.

"Nothing at all. It's like she's disappeared into thin air. You?"

"Just an afternoon of interviews and slow progress."

"Thank you for my present by the way. I don't think you've ever bought me a present before." Eliza nudged him and William laughed, but kept his eye on the route ahead of him.

"Don't read anything into it. It's your first birthday without Henry, and I know he always liked to make a big deal of your birthday."

This was true her father did always like to do something nice on her birthday, and the thought that he wasn't there this year, and wouldn't be for any other birthday, had fully been on Eliza mind.

"I just thought it might cheer you up," he confirmed.

"It was a lovely thought, thank you," she smiled, stealing a glance at him, as they settled into their route to her home.

To be continued…..


	3. Part 3

Part 3

Eliza sat at her desk in her office, reading through some of her father's old casebooks. He'd often investigated missing persons, and she was hopeful they might give her some guidance. She was in need of some inspiration, since she was coming up blank with Clara's disappearance, and was hoping something in one of these books might help.

She was due to meet Clara's friend, Abigail Tompkins, within the hour. She was certain that this friend should be able to shed some light onto Clara and the life she led. Perhaps William might have been right in his assessment, that she had an unsuitable gentleman friend.

"You shouldn't be reading those." Eliza looked up in the direction of her father's chair by the fireplace.

"Why not?" she wondered, these were his casebooks from years ago, full of his musings, surely there wasn't anything she shouldn't be reading in them.

"Because what's written in them was not for your eyes," he said sternly.

"Well, if you didn't want me reading them, perhaps you should have burnt them while you were alive."

"Lizzy." Henry's tone was a warning, but Eliza ignored the feeling she was doing something wrong and turned the page to continue reading. Her eyes grew wide as she looked over what was written on the page, in her father's familiar writing.

"Seriously," she held the book down, ever so slightly furious, looking towards her father's empty chair.

"I warned you, you weren't supposed to read these books."

"Well I didn't think you'd have written anything concerning me in these books!"

"That was written along time ago," he defended.

"Of all the people you know, you'd have chosen him?"

Eliza rolled her eyes and for once, Henry's sprit knew better then to speak. She slammed shut the book, and leaned back in her chair. That page may well have been written many years ago, but that still didn't mean that Henry hadn't meant it, then and now….

Well, Eliza didn't have time for her fathers musing now, so this would have to wait.

Eliza had arranged to meet with Clara's friend, Abigail Tompkins, at noon at a teahouse near Kensington. She was still mulling over her fathers writings as she arrived in the carriage. It was a small, quaint teashop, Eliza regarded as she left the carriage. Somewhere that perhaps she'd meet her own friends, had she entertained their company more often. It was very busy with wealthy well-dressed women, sharing tea, sandwiches and cakes.

Abigail was already sat in a corner table for two, as a server pointed Eliza in her direction. Abigail was a smartly dressed young woman, in a beautifully floral dress and white shirt, with bright red hair that was pulled neatly back into a bun. She smiled politely in Eliza's direction as she saw her walk towards her.

"Miss Scarlet," Abigail stood and greeted Eliza at the table.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Tompkins, I only wish it was under better circumstances." Eliza commented, as she sat down and removed her dark blue hat and gloves.

"It's so awful, so unlike Clara," Abigail said, with genuine concern.

"I take it you were close?"

"She's my best friend. We went to school together, we have the same interests. She is wonderful, and kind, and nothing is ever too much trouble. It wouldn't be like her to not tell anyone what she was doing. "

"What can you tell me about her home life?"

"It was normal. She got along with her parents, loved her sister. She always wanted to please them, never got herself into any trouble." Eliza listened intently as Abigail described her friend.

"She was always so friendly, easy to be around, and got along with everyone."

"When did you see her last?"

"It was the Sunday before she disappeared, we met for an afternoon walk along the Thames."

"Did you notice anything different? Did she seem any different to normal?"

"There was nothing out of the ordinary Miss Scarlet. She gave no reason for me to think she would leave without saying anything, to anyone," Abigail insisted.

Eliza thought for a moment as a server brought over a pot of tea and some sandwiches on a display plate and set them down between the two ladies, who to the untrained eye, were just two friends gossiping.

"I hope you don't mind me ordering on your behalf," Abigail said, with a smile. "I do so miss my afternoons with my friend." Eliza just smiled back.

The server poured some tea into their teacups, and added some milk and sugar, before leaving them to their business.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but did Clara have a man in her life, or perhaps someone new, that she had recently met? Someone she wouldn't want people to know about?"

Abigail thought for a moment as she sipped some tea.

"She never mentioned anyone she was interested in. I know her parents had set up a meeting with a banker, Barnaby I think his name was, but Clara thought him dull as dishwater, and had no interest in meeting him again. She was content as she was, certain that the right person would come along at the right time. She was happy to keep looking, if you know what I mean."

"So did she like to go anywhere, to meet someone?"

"We'd often go to the local artist galleries, and she loved strolling around the parks. Regents Park, Hyde Park near the serpentine was always a favourite place in the sunshine, she spent much time there. I suppose she could have met someone there, but she certainly hadn't mentioned anyone in particular."

"Is there anyone else Clara could have confided in?"

"Miss Scarlet, I've known Clara since we were 7 years old. I know her favourite colour, her favourite foods. She always had her hair done, every Tuesday. We met for tea, every Thursday, without fail. If something was going on in her life I knew about it. We had no secrets. If Clara was planning to leave, if she'd met someone, I'm certain I would have known about it."

Abigail's insistence that Clara wouldn't have run away left Eliza with a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. If this wasn't planned, it could only mean that something untoward had happened to Clara, and it was a strong possibility that Clara might not be found. There was really only one place to go…. Scotland Yard...

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eliza slipped into Scotland Yard like she was meant to be there, giving anyone little opportunity to question her. She needed to get into the archive room, but there was going to be little way around William on this one. He was always insistent that since she wasn't a police officer, the archive room was off limits to her.

She needed a plan, and little did she know, one was just about to present itself to her.

"Miss Scarlet." Eliza turned around in the corridor near William's office as she heard the voice say her name.

"Ah, Detective Phillips," Eliza smiled.

"Duke's out at the moment, he's gone to a meeting," Phillips told her. Eliza looked in the direction of William's office. His door was shut, though this was usually his first line of defense against her just walking in.

"No bother, I can just wait in his office," she said, walking toward his closed office door.

"I'm not sure when he's due back," Phillips at her looked curiously. Eliza thought, perhaps William really was in a meeting somewhere. She turned the handle and William's office was indeed locked. Damn it, Eliza thought.

"Would you like me to let you in?" Phillips offered. Clearly William hadn't warned him well enough about her.

"That would be lovely," she answered with an innocent smile.

Detective Phillips unlocked William's office door and unwittingly left Eliza alone. With William out, and unsure when he would be back, she would have to be careful. The last thing she needed was him coming back and finding her looking through his police files.

She closed the office door, hung her hat on the coat stand and put her bag on the soft worn chair near the fire. She turned round and walked across the office to open up his filing cabinet near the door, and started glancing over the files, looking for any recent unsolved crimes. She was trying to find anything that could bring up a clue as to the whereabouts of an unidentified body.

She'd been going through the draws and checking each file, coming up blank, until she found something she could not ignore. A young woman named Hannah Sadler, whose body was found on the banks of the Thames just over 3 weeks ago. Eliza read through the case file, and felt the sense she'd read it before.

There was something so similar to another of William's files she'd read. She stopped for a moment, closing the draw she'd been going through and walked over to William's desk. She searched the piles of files and paperwork on his desk for the particular file till she found it.

Sara Gilbert…. She put both files side by side and read through matching the details. The cases were so similar, both reported missing by their families, both found dead with a slit throat, both found on the Thames, albeit in different parts of the river. Eliza couldn't help but think something was very wrong here.

She slipped out of William's office with both files in her hand, with still no sign of William, it was Detective Phillips she needed.

"Could you let me into the Archive room," Eliza said, giving Phillips her best smile.

Phillips hesitated for a moment, he wasn't sure if he was supposed to let her into the archive room.

"Are you sure The Duke won't mind?"

"Of course not," Eliza totally lied, but was convincing enough that he let her in.

Eliza turned on the light, took in the windowless dusty room, there were rows and stacks of boxes and filing cabinets in the room. Where was she supposed to start? After a moment she realised there was no way she could look into this by herself.

"Are you busy?" She asked Phillips.

"What do you need?" he shrugged.

"I've just noticed a similarity in these two cases, and just wondered if there are any others…. I'm sure Inspector Wellington won't mind if you give me a hand."

Of course Eliza knew William would mind, but Phillips didn't, so naturally he agreed….

To be continued….


	4. Part 4

Part 4

William was whistling in a good mood as he returned to Scotland Yard, after all his meeting with his superiors had gone far better then he'd anticipated. He put his hat back on, as he got out of his carriage, straightened his coat, thanked his driver, and then made his way into the police building.

"Duke," he heard from the Sargent on the front desk, as he went to walk through the doors into the main building.

"Yes,"

"Detective Phillips said to tell you Miss Scarlet is waiting for you in your office."

"Thank you," William nodded. At least for once he had a heads up.

William walked down the corridor towards his office and noticed his door was shut, but this was not uncommon with Eliza. She liked to have the element of surprise as her upper hand. This time he knew she was there, so he walked in the office fully prepared.

Only, to his surprise, she wasn't in there. William glanced around his office and noticed her navy hat hanging on his coat stand, and her bag left in the soft chair by the fireplace. Clearly she was still in the building somewhere and she hadn't slipped out unnoticed. He hung up his coat and hat on the hat stand, and went in search of her.

William noticed that Phillips wasn't at his desk, so perhaps, wherever he was Eliza was too. He walked further down the corridor, and noticed the door to the archive room was ajar. As he walked closer, he could feel his temper rising.

He turned into the room, and saw Phillips in one row and Eliza in another, both sifting through boxes, and pulling out files.

"What are you doing Eliza, you're not allowed in here!"

William's anger was evident in his tone and the thickness of his accent. He glared from Eliza to Phillips, who clearly had let her in.

Phillips sank back, kicking himself that once again he'd been played.

"Ah, William, there you are, where have you been?" Eliza enquired, ignoring his tone.

"That doesn't matter, what are you doing in here?"

"I found something rather interesting in your files…"

"How many times do I have to tell you about reading my files?" He groaned frustrated with her.

"We can discuss that later, this is important," Eliza continued to ignore William's anger, and persisted with what she needed to say.

"I found an unsolved murder file, Hannah Saddler, and it was so similar to another file I read a few days ago, Sara Gilbert."

"So, " William asked, shrugging impatiently.

"So, both smart women, reported missing by their family, both found dead exactly 3 days later, their bodies left by the Thames, and well, 2's a coincidence, so I wondered if there were any others…"

William listened as Eliza spoke, the anger from moments earlier draining from him, and replaced by a feeling of dread. For a moment Eliza paused, letting him take in her information.

"Why do I not like the sound of where you're going with this?" He finally said, sighing.

"Detective Phillips and I have been going through the missing persons, and unsolved murders of women, and cross referencing, and …. well…" Eliza stopped and held out two more files, "3 and 4 a pattern…"

Eliza held out the additional 2 files she had found and waited for William to take them from her. William took in a deep breath, as he took the files and opened the top one. This did not sound good to him.

"All 4 cases were given to different detectives, they would never have been put together, but they are all the same William. Women go missing, all from families who have reported them missing, then their bodies turn up 3 days later, throat slit and left in different places along the Thames. Places they would be easily found rather then washed away, almost like the killer wanted them to be found."

Eliza waited for William to say something, but he didn't for a good few minutes, as he looked over each file, and came to the exact same conclusion as Eliza.

"These 4 cases, they're all from the last 9 months, there could be more if we look back further," William finally reasoned. "Phillips, go get Davy, and Walker, get them in here as well. We need to know if there are anymore cases we need to be dealing with."

"Yes Duke," Phillips nodded from his spot before practically running out the room.

Eliza gave a slight smile in Williams' direction, wondering if he would comment on her good work, or at the very least let her stay looking through the archives.

"Just because you found this, does not mean you're getting off going through my files … again," William warned.

Eliza dropped her smile, no way was she letting him drop her from this case now.

"William, I put this together, I found this, you can't…."

"How many times Eliza? You are not a police officer, you can't keep waltzing in here like you are…"

"For the record, I don't waltz anywhere," she fired back at him. "I wasn't looking for this, I just happened to come across the file..."

"Oh really, and where did you find said file?" William waited patiently for her response, because he had a fair idea exactly what she'd been doing and where she found these files. Eliza rolled her eyes under his annoyed gaze.

"In your cabinet," she finally gave in.

"Exactly, you went through my files, my private files, looking for trouble, and you found this. You need to leave, now." William's anger was becoming more evident, the longer she tried hopelessly to defend her actions with what she'd uncovered.

"No way, I found this pattern, I put it together, I want to work on it…"

"No." William remained firm and he was not budging on this.

"William,"

"Out…." He pointed to the door.

"You can't do this," Eliza sounded furious, but William was not relenting.

"Yes I can. I can even carry you out of here kicking and screaming if you'd like," he warned.

William looked more serious then she'd seen him in a while. Eliza thought for a moment, whether she really wanted to see if he would follow through on that particular threat, and felt sure that he wouldn't care that it would be rather undignified.

"Well, can I at least have 5 more minutes?"

"Eliza, I'm warning you now…" William stood tall, towering over her, warning her not to push him any further.

"At least let me see if what I came here to find is here, something that will help me with my case. I'll leave this one alone."

"Get your things!"

William turned and stood in the doorway, watching her like a hawk waiting for her next move.

Eliza turned her back on him, and as slowly as a snail, starting putting a few files back in the box she was looking in, then something caught her eye, a photograph attached to a file, an unidentified body file, and her heart sank slightly.

She glanced at William out of the corner of her eye, and at that moment, Phillips returned to the archive room, with the two other officers in tow, momentarily distracting William long enough for her to swipe the file without him noticing, as she put the lid on the box. She hid the file in her jacket, stood up and innocently walked towards William.

"Am I allowed to get my bag from your office?" Eliza retorted as she went to leave the archive room.

"I don't know, can I trust you to not go through anything else in my office?" Eliza glared at him in the eyes, before striding away from him down the corridor, silently calling him every curse word in her head.

Still, she reasoned, she hadn't walked away empty handed, as she retrieved her bag and hat from Williams office, patting at the file with a half smile, before leaving the building and heading straight to her home.

To Be Continued…..


	5. Part 5

Part 5

Eliza was in the armchair on the far side of her drawing room, sat nearest the lit open fire keeping warm. She stared at the stolen police file, and the attached black and white photographs, with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

There was no mistaking who was in the photograph. Clara Wilson. She put the missing persons and the unsolved murder file together as one. Even with both files, she was limited on what she could go on.

It was clear from reading the unidentified body case file, that the police had no leads. They had suggested she was not killed where her body had been found since there was little evidence left behind.

Her body had been found out by Greenwich, nowhere near where she was last due to be in Kensington, and found weeks after her disappearance, which could be why the missing persons and murder file were never matched up.

Eliza looked over the injury's listed, bruising on her wrists suggested she'd been tied up, and it was clear she'd tried to fight back, judging by the damage on her knuckles, and knees. Head trauma was listed as cause of death, but there were also cuts on her arms and legs, which could have led to blood lost. All in all, Clara Wilson had not met the best end, and how was she going to explain this, to her uncle?

A knock at the living room door made Eliza jump from her thoughts. Ivy, her housekeeper, pushed open the door with a smile.

"You have a visitor Miss."

Eliza looked at her confused, she wasn't expecting anyone, unless it was her friend Mr Rupert Parker, who had a habit of turning up on her un-expectedly.

"It's Inspector Wellington."

Eliza did well to hide her shock, because after their earlier interaction she was sure William wanted nothing to do with her. She quickly closed the case file, and slipped both files under her chair, before nodding for Ivy to let him in.

As he walked in, Eliza noted this clearly wasn't a quick visit, since he'd hung up his coat and hat before entering. She kept her eyes on him, giving him her best cold, hard stare, as he walked across the room and stood in front of her.

"May I?"

William motioned to the seat next to her, figuring from her slightly frosty reception, she was still mad at him for kicking her out of Scotland Yard. Eliza shrugged, trying to seem like she didn't care. She did though noticed he looked tired, and like something was on his mind.

"What do you want? Are you here to shout at me again?" she asked, her tone still angry. William gave a smirk, but sat down next to her anyway.

"I thought you'd like to know, we found 2 more cases." He sounded serious, and Eliza stared at him surprised.

"So that's 6 in total?" she asked concerned.

"Well 6 that we know of. You were right, the cases were all given to different detectives, so the similarities between the cases weren't ever noticed."

"So why are you telling me this?"

"Because you discovered it, I thought you'd like to know," he told her honestly. Eliza eyed him suspiciously. Why would he tell her there was more to what they found?

"I discovered it, but you won't let me work on the case because…." She responded coldly.

"Because of the way you discovered it, by going through my files. You owe me an apology by the way." William was stern, but the half smile on his lips and the look in his eyes showed her that he knew he'd never get one.

"However, if you want, I could use your help tomorrow." There it was, Eliza thought, he needed something. That was why he was telling her.

"Oh, so now you want my help?" She laughed, shaking her head at him.

The truth was that whilst he and his men were going through the archives in total silence, it had given him time to think, and perhaps feel just the slightest bit guilty for kicking her out so eagerly. After all, without her finding the two files, who knows when someone else might have put all the cases together. He wasn't for one second though going to tell her that.

"I need to go and interview all the families of those women. They might be more open if you're with me."

"You mean less likely to question the time it's taken for someone at Scotland Yard to put it together?" She teased, narrowing her eyes at him, as if she could read his thoughts.

"No, we're not mentioning that there are other cases or that we've put them together. Not yet at least, but I can give the reason that we're reviewing and looking back at old unsolved cases. The oldest one is nearly a year old."

Eliza thought and took a slow breath in. She had her own case to be working on. One that she should probably share with William, but perhaps now wasn't the time. He would be busy with these cases. However, she reasoned, working on this case would give her access to Scotland Yard legitimately and she could still work on Clara's case while she was there.

"I should meet you first thing at Scotland Yard then?" she asked, sounding very humble about the suggestion. She didn't need him to know how eager she really was.

"Probably best, we can go over all the cases there before we leave."

"Fine." Eliza tried her best to hide her intrigue at working on the case, and seem unbothered by the idea, but William knew better. Her interest was peaked the moment she'd put the first two cases together, and he was certain of it.

"Good, I'll see you in the morning then." William stood up to leave.

"Thank you," Eliza finally offered. It was as close to an apology as he was ever going to get. She knew deep down he didn't have to involve her at all in this case, and if she was being honest, she wasn't entirely sure why he was.

"Do not make me regret this," William warned, as he bid her good evening.

Bright and early the next morning Eliza was waiting in William's office, sitting in the soft chair near the fireplace, waiting for him to arrive. Having clearly learnt nothing about being in there without his permission.

She'd worn her blue and red checked jacket and deep red skirt with matching stripped shirt, her hair pulled back in her plaited bun, and her matching burgundy hat, which she'd hung on William's coat stand.

She didn't have to wait long for William to arrive, and he didn't seem in the least bit surprised when he walked into his office to see her in there before him.

"Good morning," Eliza smiled. "I'm not reading your files this time," she offered, with an innocent smile. William only raised his eyebrows as he hung up his coat and hat, and motioned for her to follow him.

"Come along," he told her.

She followed William up the stairs to the right of his office and into a room where she'd never been before. It wasn't a large room, but it had a long desk, for them to sit round, a large window to let in sunlight and a large chalkboard spanning all across the longest wall. Detective Phillips was already waiting for them in the room and had laid out on the table the 6 case files, 3 new notebooks, some pencils and a large map of London.

William took off his black suit jacket and hung it over the back of a chair, while Eliza took up a chair across from the chalkboard.

"Good morning Duke, Miss Scarlet," Phillips nodded.

Eliza noted from his tone, and the formality of her name, that he was not in the least bit happy with her escapade yesterday, and she would perhaps have to rectify that if she ever hoped to get round Phillips again.

"Right, lets get too it. Let go through each of these files, and see exactly where the similarities lay," William said, as he rolled up his sleeves on his grey and white shirt and approached the chalkboard. "Let's start with the oldest murder first."

One by one, the three of them went through each file with a fine eye. William wrote on the chalkboard all the details as Phillips called them out. The deceased name, age, what they looked like, hair colour, eye colour, how tall, what they had been wearing, no detail was too small.

Where they lived, when they were reported missing, and where they should have been, where their body was found, and what time of the day, cause of death and any corresponding injuries.

William included everything, any details such as hobbies, family members and friends' names mentioned in each the report. Every detail was noted, no matter how insignificant.

Eliza plotted out on the map the locations of where each murdered girl lived, where she was due to be but never arrived and where their body was found, giving them a grid of locations to see if there were any cross overs. She also made notes in a book of any discrepancies and differences between each of the cases.

Eliza had to admit she was quite enjoying watching William work. She'd never seen this side of him before, so focused on the detail. She was more used to him telling her he'd not had the time, or had not given the case his full attention. She could tell this was different, this was important to him.

The methodical way he was working through the details, pulling everything together, getting the facts clear in his mind before he spoke or questioned. In some ways it was rather distracting to her, as she found herself watching and listening intently to him and then remembering she was supposed to be making notes.

Her father had never let her work with him on a case, so she didn't know if this was something Henry had instilled in William, or the way his own mind worked. Either way, it was quite fascinating to her to watch him in this way.

After a morning's work between them, the long chalkboard was full of columns of William's writing on each woman, as they tried to understand each murder as best they could, but it still didn't give them many clues to go on.

The women all lived in different parts of London, and the locations of the bodies stretched along the Thames, so their search area was wide. There were no duplicate names in any of the files, and no reason currently to suspect any of the victims knew each other.

"Something changed after the fourth murder," Eliza pointed out, reading over the notes she'd written in her book.

"Before then, all the women had defensive wounds, like they tried to fight back, these last two, there are no additional wounds, just the slit throat. Do you think maybe the killer drugged them?" Eliza asked.

"It's a possibility, I mean looking at the first one, she must have done some damage fighting back, and there's 3 months between that one and the next one," William said.

"They must have someway to transport the bodies. None of those girls were killed at the Thames, so they perhaps were all killed in the same place. Presumably where they were hidden for the 3 days they were missing, then moved afterwards," Phillips offered, and William nodded in agreement.

"Judging by the times the bodies were found, I'd say they were moved at night, less likely to be spotted under the cover of darkness," William declared.

Eliza stared at the map, the bodies were deposited all along the Thames and on both sides of the river, there was no consistent location to narrow a place down where they might have been held captive.

"The locations of everything are so far apart, it's going to be difficult to get a shortlist of places to look," she told them.

"Agreed," William said, rubbing his forehead.

"I feel like the killer knew them," Eliza added," The way the bodies were placed with care, their hands touching, all blood wiped clean, left to look like they were sleeping. They didn't just dump the bodies to be washed out to sea. The killer wanted these women to be found. Whoever it is doing this, they take their time between murders."

"Which means the killer is likely to strike again. The last murder was nearly a month ago, so that suggests to me it could happen again soon," William replied.

"I'll let the front desk know, if they get any women being reported missing by a family member, they should pass it to us," Phillips said, and William nodded. They needed to know and give themselves time to find this person.

"Eliza and I will go and speak with each of the families now. Phillips, take a carriage along the far side of the Thames and then back here, see if any places stick out to you as being a place where someone could hideout."

William knew that he was sending Phillips out to look for a needle in a haystack, but Phillips was fresh eyes on the city of London, perhaps that might spark something.

Phillips quickly collected his things and headed out while Eliza looked over the chalkboard. They were missing something, she was sure of it, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

To be continued…


	6. Part 6

Part 6

If the morning going through each murder was hard, meeting the families of the deceased was even worse. Each family they met was as upset as the last, no matter how much time had passed. Eliza couldn't help but notice how similar each family was.

All normal, loving, families, who were not well off, but not poor either, and they all claimed to close knit families. The girls were all young, single happy women.

They didn't appear to work, but had regular places to visit, and liked to meet friends for walks, tea and gossip. They all enjoyed their lives, and all were looking for a husband. The one thing Eliza could determine was that she was nothing like those women.

"We're meeting Sara Gilbert's family next," William said, as they left the third family house of the afternoon. He held open the door to the carriage and held out his hand to let Eliza get in first, before sitting opposite her.

"All the details of these women are different, different height, hair colour, it's like they have no preference to who they kill," Eliza offered. "I'm still not convinced that they didn't know their killer."

"You think these women were seeing the same person, and not telling anyone?"

"I don't know if I'd go as far to say it was a romantic connection, but perhaps a passing befriending. Someone they knew, but not close enough to be worth telling anyone significant about."

"That doesn't help us, you could be talking about anyone. Someone they've met in a library, a park if they take the same daily route…"

Eliza thought for a moment. "Someone who could orchestrate being in the same place at the same time, so they would meet. They would need to know these women had a regular schedule, know where they would go."

"But surely they would have been seen by other friends?"

"Unless they saw them on the way to places or to meet people, rather then where they were meeting their friends."

"That way they are never seen by anyone." William nodded in agreement. "But what kind of a person can do that. What kind of job would allow them the time to do that?"

"Unless they are rich. Someone like Rupert Parker, for instance, would have all the time in the world."

"Well there aren't that many people in this city wealthy enough not to work, and those that are usually spend their time in the Gentlemen's clubs. So aren't likely to be following any women there."

"All these women were single, and their families suggest that they were looking to find a husband."

"So where do you go to find a husband?" William asked.

"Are you asking me?" Eliza queried, because she certainly wasn't looking for one.

"It was a rhetorical question," William confirmed with a half smile.

"Well good, because I'm not sure I'd have the first idea where you go to find one, even if I was looking for someone. I don't exactly have a line of men knocking on my door."

"Mr Parker seems to turn up a lot," William enquired. He still wasn't entirely sure of what their relationship standing was, and he would be lying if he said it didn't bother him.

"So," Eliza shrugged, "he's a friend,"

"A friend who invested in your business…"

"And what's your point..?"

"Men usually want something in return…"

"So what's your motivation for helping me then?" Eliza smiled. It was a fast back and forth between them, and Eliza wondered if for a moment she'd caught William off guard, only he replied to her just as quickly.

"You're father would want me to keep an eye on you in this business." William kept his eyes on her as he smiled back. He'd answered a little too quickly, as if it was a prepared statement, Eliza noted. They stared each other down for a moment, wondering if the other might raise a challenge.

"Of course he would William…" Eliza responded, as she pulled away from his gaze and looked out the window. They were coming up near St Paul's cathedral, and she stared at it as they went passed.

"So, you're thinking it's a man killing these women?" Eliza finally asked, getting them back to a safer topic.

"I'd say that's more likely, given the height and weight of the murdered women, but we've no real proof either way. Our killer knows what they are doing, they are careful not to leave any evidence."

"Could be two jealous women," Eliza said, but she wasn't convinced. "Working together to kill and move them."

"Jealous of what though?" William queried.

"There is absolutely nothing to suggest any of the dead women knew each other." Eliza declared frustrated "So what's the connection, how does our killer chose who they are going to kill? Is it as random as it seems?"

"Maybe it's the way they live," William said, as the thought occurred to him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, none of these young women work, they are all free to go about their day as they choose, be it at home running the house, meeting friends for tea, going for walks…" William made it sound like the perfect life, and Eliza laughed.

"Don't romanticize it William, I've been there, it can be highly boring with nothing to do, sitting round the house all day. I'm not sure there is much worse."

"You'd rather be working all day?" He declared, confused by her point.

"I'd rather be doing something with my time, not just sitting around at home waiting for something or nothing to happen."

"Well apparently not everyone shares your opinion."

"The world would be boring if everyone thought the same." Eliza sighed with frustration. Talking to William about this was like talking to a brick wall. She wasn't sure he was ever going to understand why she wanted to do this job. She wasn't even sure if he wanted to understand.

"But what if our killer thought it wrong. Didn't like these young free thinking women, just out looking for a husband, or perhaps weren't even looking for one," he suggested.

"Which goes back to our theory of who has the time if they aren't wealthy. I can't see these women being chased around by a street lad, equally a working man wouldn't have the time, which leads us back to a wealthy man who either doesn't work, or has the ability to pick and chose when he works." Eliza groaned, they were getting no-where fast, and time was of the essence.

William shook his head, they were going round in circles, and he hated theorizing without any facts to back it up. The simple fact was going through all the archive files yesterday, this morning's work and 3 interviews down, and they were still no closer to knowing anything about their killer.

The carriage pulled up to a simple town house in the Aldgate area where Sara Gilbert's family lived. William exited the carriage and held his hand out for Eliza. They both took a deep breath as they walked up to the black door and knocked, stepping back and waited for the maid to answer.

"I'm Detective Inspector Wellington, and this is Miss Scarlet, we're here to speak with Mr and Mrs Gilbert."

The maid opened the door wider and let them in. She led them into a large open drawing room, with green and yellow wallpaper, and motioned for them to sit on the fabric armchair and wait while she got her employer.

Mrs Gilbert was first to arrive, a solemn, slim lady, dressed in a black dress, with her dark brown hair rather formally tied back. The darkness of her outfit made her skin seem rather pale. She greeted them both without a smile and offered tea, which they declined, as she sat down in the chair opposite from them and dismissed her maid.

"Do forgive me Inspector, when we spoke a few days ago, you said there was nothing further you could tell us, so I was rather surprised when I got you message you wanted to speak with us again."

"I'm afraid there isn't much more I can tell you, but we do have a few questions about Sara if you don't mind."

"Anything you need which will help find the wretched person who…" She trailed off unable to say the words.

"Could you tell us a bit more about her, the places she liked to go, the type of people that she would meet? Did she have a regular daily schedule that she kept to?" William asked gently.

"Sara was such an active girl, so friendly, she could make a friend with a brick wall," Mrs Gilbert smiled with recall. "She loved to be outside, anywhere green, or down by the river. She always hated being cooped up in this house. As soon as she was awake she was itching to go out, rain or shine."

"What type of places did she like to go to?" Eliza asked.

"You would always find Sara sat under a tree with her nose in a book. She loved them, re-read the same ones over and over again. It was her way to escape she used to say."

"Escape?" William queried.

"She just wasn't one for staying in the house. She'd often be up early and back home late. Off to the Library, then sit in one of the parks for a while. She'd occasionally come home for something to eat, but often she'd just be out walking or reading, meeting friends."

"Can you tell us about her friends?"

"Oh she was always mentioning lots of people, but I couldn't say how close she was to any of them. She never brought anyone back here to socialize."

"Did she happened to say anything about any men she might have befriended?" William asked carefully.

"I'm not sure Sara was that interested in finding a man Inspector, or at least anyone that she cared to tell me about."

Just then Mr Gilbert join them in the drawing room. An older man, with greying hair, perhaps in his 50's Eliza judged. He was smartly dressed in pin stripped trousers, shirt and tie and a black pin stripped jacket.

"There was one person Sara mentioned." Mr Gilbert interjected as he walked over to sit with his wife.

"Oh now what was his name…" He thought for a few moments. "I remember her saying she wasn't that interested but he was quite persistent."

"Did she give any details about him, what he may have looked like?"

"No I'm afraid I don't remember if she did." Mrs Gilbert looked lost in thought as her husband spoke, trying to remember her daughter and this man, knowing it could be important.

"You don't think this man could be involved?"

"I couldn't say…" William began.

"Barney, Bernard…." Mrs Gilbert started before her husband jumped in.

"Barnaby," Mr Gilbert said, as if he had hit a jackpot.

"Barnaby?" Eliza queried, quickly. That name was familiar. Clara's friend Abigail had mentioned that name.

"Yes, that's it, that was his name," Mrs Gilbert confirmed.

"Do you happen to remember his surname?" William queried, but alas they did not.

"He had some important job, can't quite remember what it was, but it sounded very posh."

"A banker… maybe?" Eliza pushed, as William did a double take of her, wondering where her line of questioning was going.

"Maybe, a bank clerk or a lawyer, he seemed important." Mr Gilbert confirmed.

William continued his questions, but Eliza's mind was elsewhere. The name Barnaby wasn't all that common to come up on two different murder cases. Could Clara's murder somehow be connected? It didn't make sense. Her case was nothing like these ones.

"Okay well, thank you for your time, we will let you know if we need anything else." William stood and shook hands with Mr Gilbert as Eliza suddenly realized that everyone around her was moving. She gathered up her bag, and smiled at Mr and Mrs Gilbert, before following William out.

Outside on the street William gathered his thoughts, while Eliza still seemed lost in her own.

"What are you thinking?" he asked her, as they walked over to his carriage. Eliza shrugged, but William knew something was up, something had been said that meant something, it was just a case of whether she wanted to share it with him.

"Just thinking, Barnaby's a familiar name," she finally admitted. William looked at her confused.

"Really? I don't remember it mentioned in any of the case files we went through."

"No it wasn't," Eliza covered, "but I wonder if any of the other victims knew a Barnaby."

Perhaps that was a question for the next family.

To be continued ….


	7. Part 7

Part 7

Back at Scotland Yard Eliza was itching to slip away, but William had been keeping a rather watchful eye on her. Ever since leaving the Gilbert's house he'd been paying more attention to her because he knew she was keeping something from him.

None of the other families they'd spoken to knew if their daughter had known a Barnaby. So, Eliza knew this lead could be a jump, but she had to go and see Clara Wilson's parents, whether or not her uncle thought it was a good idea.

While William went out of his office to speak to another officer, Eliza waited in the chair at his desk, and Detective Phillips was sat at the corner desk near the fireplace writing up his case notes. The silence between them was beginning to feel uncomfortable, so Eliza thought after yesterday, she might at least take a moment to try and make it up to him.

"So Detective Phillips, how are you finding London?" She asked, as she turned round in her chair to look at him and where he was sitting.

"Not too bad, it's rather large compared to home," he said, barely looking up from his paperwork, and keeping his back to her.

"And where is home?"

"Southend, near the sea." he told her, as he stopped his writing.

"What made you move to London?" She him asked, genuinely interested.

"My lady, she's a singer…"

"A singer, oh. Is she good?"

Finally Phillips properly put down his pencil and turned around to look at her. He suddenly seemed to relax into talking with her. Like this was a subject he didn't mind discussing.

"She's amazing. She got offered a job singing at this restaurant in Soho, I sometimes play piano for her, but to be honest she doesn't need me. She just shines when she's up on stage. You know, she lights up the room."

Phillips had a wistful look on his face, as he talked about his Lady. Eliza could clearly see how much he cared for her, and he didn't seem in the least bit embarrassed sharing his feelings for her.

"So you moved here with her?"

"Yeah, I'd moved to the other side of the world with her if I had to."

"What her name?"

"Emily," he smiled the biggest beaming smile Eliza had ever seen. "She's beautiful. Special," he confirmed.

"She sounds it, " Eliza confirmed, smiling at Phillips' infectious happiness.

"I'm gonna marry her, one day … if she'll have me that is," Phillips shrugged, still smiling.

"Well she would be a very luck lady, I'm sure."

"Nah, she's way too good for me, but she likes having me around." Eliza laughed. That was a man in love if ever she saw it.

"I mean, she's not with me for my money, or my boyish good looks. I just make her laugh, and you know, apart from when she's singing, her laughing is just the best sound. If you got nothing else, just make a woman laugh."

"Ah, key to a lasting relationship there."

"Yep, find someone who in the worst times can make you smile and laugh, and the rest will sort itself. That's my advice anyway."

"That's pretty good advice." Eliza smiled. "Well, I might head out now, I've got a case of my own to do some work on," Eliza said.

She stood up, wondering if she could get out before William noticed and questioned her on where she was going.

"But, let me know when Emily is next singing, I'd like to hear her."

"Will do Miss Scarlet." Phillips nodded his head, seemly back on more friendly terms with her, and then returned his attention to his report.

Eliza looked out of William's office and saw him still talking with another officer, so slipped out of his office un-noticed.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eliza stopped by her house to look over Clara's case file and get the address for her parents, before going back out. It was getting late in the day, but Eliza knew this had to be done today. The carriage pulled up to small house in Southwark, very different to her townhouse.

She knocked on the black front door, and stepped back, waiting for it to be opened. A young girl answered, dressed in a long dark dress and white pinafore, and with her long dark hair half down and half pulled up in a ribbon. From the family photograph in the case file, Eliza knew this girl was Clara's younger sister.

"Good afternoon, my name is Eliza Scarlet, I was wondering if I could speak to your mother?"

"Sure, come in," the young girl shrugged.

The girl opened the door wide and Eliza stepped straight into a small dark open living room. It was all red brickwork, low ceilings and dark wood beams, with a kitchen at the back of the room and stairs leading upstairs in the middle of the room.

The fire in the living area was lit, giving out light and warmth, and Eliza moved to stand by the fabric armchair near it. Mrs Wilson was standing at the cooker, preparing the families evening meal.

"Mother, this lady would like to speak to you," the young girl said, before disappearing up the stairs.

Clara Wilsons mother, was slim and dressed more like a maid then a mother, in a long dark dress and pinafore apron, with a white cotton hat covering her fair hair. She smiled politely to Eliza and wiped her hands on a towel before walking towards her. Eliza could see Clara's resemblance in her mother.

"Hello, my name is Eliza Scarlet, I'm a private detective working with Scotland Yard. I was wondering if I could take a moment of your time to speak to you about your daughter, Clara?"

Mrs Wilsons smile dropped at the mention of Clara's name.

"What do you know of my Clara?" There was a hopeful tone to her question and in her eyes, one that Eliza wasn't quite ready to quash with the truth.

"I'm afraid I don't have much news regarding Clara. I'm working with Scotland Yard on another case, and I wondered if perhaps I could ask you a few questions."

"If you think it might help?"

"I spoke with a friend of Clara's, Abigail Tompkins, she mentioned that you and your husband introduced Clara to a gentleman named, Barnaby. I was wondering if you could tell me about him."

"Barnaby? Why do you want to know about him?" Mrs Wilson queried.

"It might be nothing," Eliza tried to sound gentle.

"He was just a gentleman we met, he seemed kind, and interested in Clara, so we introduced them." As she spoke Eliza sensed that the woman believed this man posed no threat.

"Where did you meet him?"

"Over at Southwark Park. He approached my husband and I one evening when we were taking a stroll. He said he'd seen us with Clara, and wondered if we might introduce them."

"How had he seen you?" Eliza queried, confused that a man who didn't know them would just approach them so easily.

"He said he'd just seen us around the park together. We often took an evening walk together during the summer months."

"Do you happen to know his last name?" Eliza asked, giving Mrs Wilson a moment to think.

"Yes, it was Sherwood, I remember because it reminded me of the forest from Robin Hood."

Barnaby Sherwood, she had a name now. That was something to work with.

"And he was a banker? Do you happen to know what bank he worked at?"

"Yes, he said he was a banker, but he never said which bank. Just that he was a teller."

"Do you remember anything about him? Where he lived?"

"He was a fair haired gentleman, perhaps a little taller then yourself, always polite and nicely dressed, always in a black suit. There was nothing particularly remarkable, or out of the ordinary about him. I assume he lives locally, if he'd seen us in the park?"

It wasn't much for Eliza to go on, but it was something at least. Something they could potentially work on, and rule out.

"Thank you for your time. Please if there is anything else you remember about him, you can send a message to my office."

Eliza pulled out of her pocket a small piece of paper with the address of her office on, and handed it over, in the hopes that with time she might remember a detail or two.

Eliza moved to leave, and in a moment of wonder, she asked one more question.

"Mrs Wilson, forgive this perhaps odd question, but do you happen to have a brother? Or Clara an Uncle by marriage?" Eliza asked, and Mrs Wilson looked at her confused.

"No she doesn't. Our only relative is my sister, and she lives alone in Cornwall. We aren't that close, so we only visit each other on rare occasions."

Eliza only nodded, her concern now being who exactly had asked her to investigate Clara's disappearance.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eliza was once again sitting in her drawing room lost in thought over Clara's case, comparing her police file with the notebook with her notes from this morning.

The similarities were slim, and there was little that linked Clara with any of the other victims. So how did Barnaby's name come up on both cases? Eliza knew there was little chance of it being a pure coincidence.

Before she'd returned home, she'd found her Jamaican friend Moses, an associate of hers who was incredible at finding information. She had asked him to see if anyone he knew had any information on this Barnaby Sherwood. She was hoping he'd meet her again tomorrow with an update. If she could get an address, or even know which bank he worked at that would be something.

"What are you working on?" Ivy asked, as she came into the drawing room to give Eliza a cup of tea. Eliza moved slightly and motioned for Ivy to sit with her.

She and Ivy had become a lot closer since her father had passed away. They often ate dinner in the kitchen downstairs together, and more recently, Ivy had taken an interest in listening to Eliza talk about her cases on a daily basis.

"It's a disappearance, which has turned into a murder. I knew when I took the case that this wasn't going to be a simple one, but I don't know. There's something about it. Something doesn't feel right. The person who hired me said he was her uncle, only he's not, and there a name that's come up, but it could be nothing. Or I'm over thinking after spending the morning with William and his new detective going over 6 murder cases, which may or may not be related to my missing girl."

Ivy listened intently to Eliza's ramblings, even if she couldn't offer any real advise. It would be a lie to say that she didn't worried about Eliza, going out and investigating murders. She didn't believe it right for a young lady, but it was at least keeping a roof over their heads. Ivy caught sight of one of the crime scene photographs and grimaced.

"How can you look at those pictures?" Ivy motioned to the top photograph of the dead woman attached to the file. Eliza moved the photograph underneath a piece of paper in the file. She hadn't meant for Ivy to see the photographs, and could see how uncomfortable it made her.

"I try not to dwell on the pictures too much," Eliza told her truthfully.

"It not right, you looking at all these murders."

Eliza sipped on her tea, wondering what her father would do with a case like this. She wished more then anything that he'd shared more of his cases with her when he was alive. That she could have had his real advice to work with.

"I just want to be able to give some closure to this family. They don't even know she's dead," Eliza told Ivy sadly.

"Well, you can't do that in one night," Ivy offered, hoping it might settle Eliza's mind.

"I know," Eliza sighed.

"Perhaps sleep on it and look at it with a clear head in the morning."

A knock at the front door interrupted them, and Ivy smiled as she stood up to get the door.

Eliza picked up the family photograph of Clara Wilson family. They looked so happy. It was going to be so hard to tell them the truth about what had become of their daughter.

Ivy opened the door to the drawing room and walked a few paces inside giving Eliza a knowing smile.

"Inspector Wellington is here for you," her tone amused, as she stopped short from saying again.

Eliza quickly moved the case file behind her back, as William didn't wait for her to say it was okay for him to come in.

He just nodded and thanked Ivy, who closed the door behind her as he walked over to the armchair Eliza was sitting in. Once again he appeared to be staying, since he'd hung up his coat and hat. He waited for Eliza to motion that he could sit down, and then he settled himself on the armchair next to her before speaking.

"You disappeared from the station this afternoon. What happened?"

"I needed to do some work on my own case."

"Meaning?" William questioned, but Eliza just shrugged.

Eliza thought about whether now was a good time to let William in on what she knew. She was certainly going to have to tell him at some point and the longer she left it the more angry he was going to be.

"You know something…. I know you," he told her, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I went to see Clara Wilson's family," she replied innocently.

"Your missing person?" William clarified.

Eliza took an uncomfortable moment as he stared at her waiting for her to continue, before she realised now was as good a time as any to tell him the truth.

"She's not exactly missing."

Eliza removed the file from behind her back, and held it out for him. William raised his eyebrows as he took it from her and opened it up.

"I found an unidentified body report in the archive room, and it's definitely Clara Wilson," she told him. William sighed as he listened to her. He wasn't surprised.

"Go on, yell at me, you know you want to." Eliza waited for him to start a tirade, only for once he didn't. Instead he took a deep breath and sighed.

"I won't waste my breath." His facial expression told her he was decidedly unimpressed. "So what did you find out?"

Eliza was slightly unnerved by the fact that William seemed so calm. This wasn't like him. She eyed him cautiously, he should be furious with her, but instead he just seemed mildly annoyed.

"When I spoke to her friend the other day, she mentioned that Clara had met with a man named Barnaby. Which is why when Sara's parents brought up the name it sounded familiar. So, I went to Clara's parents to see if I could get any more information."

"And did you?" He knew she'd picked up on something when they were speaking to Sara's parents. Why couldn't she just tell him this information instead of hiding it from him?

"Well, the Barnaby that Clara met with was called Barnaby Sherwood and he was a bank teller, but she wasn't sure which bank. It could just be a coincidence that both cases have someone called Barnaby mentioned, but I doubt it."

"Well, lets put a message out in the morning to all the major banks, see if any of them have or had a Barnaby Sherwood working for them. It's a place to start at least."

Eliza was surprised, she expected a worse reaction from him, perhaps now was a good time to give him the other piece of news.

"There is one more thing…" She said slowly, testing his reaction

"Of course there is…" William wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or get mad. There was always something with Eliza.

"So, the man who hired me to look into Clara's disappearance, well he said he was her uncle… Only when I asked Clara's mother, she said she has no brothers, only a sister in Cornwall they rarely see."

"So who hired you?" William suddenly looked concerned.

"Well that's the thing, I'm not sure. I've only got an address to contact him to arrange for him to come to my office. I think perhaps, maybe the next time I see him, it might be an idea if you were there too?" Eliza figured that the last part might at least placate his temper.

"For once I think we might actually agree on something." William shook his head in frustration. For once, he couldn't get mad, instead he was now concerned.

To be continued...


	8. Part 8

Part 8

William left Eliza's house with the case files for Clara Wilson to return to Scotland Yard and with his mind racing. He didn't know whether to be mad or relieved they might actually have a name to look into. He had to admit he was worried about the person who'd hired her to look into Clara's disappearance.

They'd agreed to meet the man at Eliza's office tomorrow morning. William could only be grateful that Eliza, for once, had the good sense to ask him to be there. Still he couldn't help but be worried.

This case of the murdered women was concerning him, especially Eliza's involvement. He knew he'd asked her to be involved, but he was now starting to think that he shouldn't have involved her at all.

"Scotland Yard Arthur," he said to his driver, as he got to the bottom of the house steps to his waiting carriage, but then he stopped and waited a moment.

"Actually, I need to make a stop first." Sometimes, you just have to ask yourself, what would Eliza do….?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

William kept in the dark shadows, watching the doorman escorting drunks out of the tavern. He could hear Moses familiar Jamaican twang clearly. He didn't like him, and he wasn't sure this was his best course of action, but right now he had no choice.

He watched as Moses swiped a patron's wallet as he was leaving, making William like him even less. Moses wasn't to be trusted, and this could backfire on him badly, but he was doing this to keep Eliza safe… At least that's what he told himself.

"Keeping yourself busy I see." William announced from the shadows, when he saw a quiet moment for Moses. He could tell from his facial expression that Moses knew exactly who he was, just from his Scottish accent, even if he couldn't see him in the shadows.

"Inspector, don't normally see the likes of you round these parts."

Moses wore a smile, but it was only for show. He liked messing with The Inspector, liked the way Eliza seemed to be able to as well. He knew Eliza had a way with The Inspector, which gave Moses confidence against his intimidation.

"We need to talk," William said seriously, stepping forward slightly into the light before removing his hands from his pockets, folding his arms across his body and leaning up against the wall.

"Not like you to come and find me."

"It's about Eliza," William confirmed.

Moses face twitched, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to know, but at the same time curious as to why the Inspector would want to talk about her. He noted the Inspector didn't seem too concerned, so Miss Scarlet couldn't be in immediate danger.

"I believe she asked you to find some information for her, about a man. Barnaby Sherwood," William confirmed.

"So what if she did?" Moses shrugged as if he had no care.

"I need that information."

"So why don't you ask her yourself." William cracked a small smile to Moses comment. It wasn't that simple with Eliza, and he knew it.

"I don't have the luxury of time, waiting for Eliza to decide when she wants to share her information with me. I need it before her."

Moses moved closer and eyed William cautiously. He wasn't sure he wanted to get in the middle of whatever was going on between these two. William stood up tall, it didn't matter that Moses wasn't the least bit frighten of him.

"I don't think she'd like me giving my information to you," Moses told him slowly, in his relaxed Jamaican drawl.

"Well that's for me to deal with. Right now I need that information."

"Well I don't have anything to give you,"

"Well when you do you get it to me… One more thing, I need to keep Eliza away from Scotland Yard when you do get that information to me."

"Why?"

"Trust me, it's for her own safety."

"What's in it for me?"

"The knowledge that you're keeping her safe."

"Safe from what?"

It was a fast back and forth between them, as they almost squared up to each other. Moses eyed William cautiously, and then took a step backwards. He knew the Inspector wouldn't be here unless it was necessary.

"There is a man out there, killing women, 6, that we know of," William finally told him. "The man I'm sure Eliza has asked you to look into is key to that investigation. I need to stop him, and I need to keep her safe."

"You think she's in trouble?" Moses wondered if he should be concerned. He liked Eliza, and she paid him, so he really didn't want something happening to her.

"You know Eliza, I don't think she knows how to stay away from trouble."

Moses almost laughed, he was certain that wherever Miss Scarlet was, trouble was never going to be too far behind. He took a moment, to respond. He didn't like the idea of helping the Inspector, and was certain that Eliza wouldn't like him giving his information to him instead of her. Yet, the idea that something might happen to her did enough to sway him.

"How am I supposed to keep her away from Scotland Yard?" Moses finally asked.

"That's for you to figure out. Just keep away while I do what I need to do."

"She's not going to like this."

"That's for me to deal with."

As far as Moses was concerned, William could deal with that all he wanted.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning William met Eliza at her office, and awaited the arrival of Mr Wilson, whoever he was.

William was sat on the corner of her desk, while Eliza paced slightly nervously. She liked to be in control, and this was very much outside of it. She wasn't sure what sort of a man Mr Wilson really was, and she knew from previous experience with Joseph Sims that this could go badly.

They heard the footsteps coming up the stairs, and caught each other's eyes, then came the knock at the door. Eliza took a breath and steadied herself before opening the door with a perfect smile.

"Mr Wilson, please do come in," she said politely.

He was once again smartly dressed, in a dark expensive suit and hat, but this time with a walking cane, though Eliza suspected, like her friend Rupert Parker, this was for show, rather then his actual need of one.

"Thank you." Mr Wilson greeted her with a warm smile, which faded as soon as he walked in and noticed William, perched on the corner of her desk.

"Mr Wilson, this is a colleague of mine, Detective Inspector Wellington."

"Oh dear, I take it you do not have good news." Mr Wilson removed his hat, and held it close to his chest for a moment.

Eliza noted the worrying tone in the man's voice, and the concerned look on his face. Both seemed very genuine.

"Please do have a seat," Eliza said politely, motioning to the seat opposite her desk, but Mr Wilson instead stumbled to the nearest leather chair by the fire, as if he wouldn't make it the few more steps to the desk.

Eliza and William shared a confused look. This wasn't entirely the way they thought this would go. Whilst William stayed where he was, Eliza moved to sit in the other leather chair by the fire opposite him.

"Mr Wilson, I've been looking more closely into Clara's disappearance…"

"Do you believe she is dead?" He asked, not looking at her, as if afraid of the answer to his question.

"Why would you think that?" Eliza queried.

"You have an Inspector with you, even I can tell that must mean something untoward has happened." He closed his eyes tight, clearly not wanting to face what was in front of him.

"Mr Wilson…" Eliza began, before she stopped, and decided to come clean, she spoke calmly and quietly. "Mr Wilson, I know you're not Clara's Uncle, she doesn't have any uncles…"

Mr Wilson slowly opened his eyes in shock, he thought he had done so well, but it was clear she knew.

"No, I am not her Uncle," he reluctantly confirmed.

"So who are you? Why lie?" William asked firmly, clearly not interested in using Eliza's soft approach.

"I am only a concerned friend. I thought unless I told you I was a family member, you wouldn't want to look into her disappearance."

"What's your name?" William pressed. Mr Wilson didn't answer at first, and didn't look like he wanted to answer, but after a few moments he finally admitted who he was.

"My name is Colin Trewsbury." William instantly did a double take after hearing his true name.

"Of the Park Lane…"

"Yes." He answered quickly, and powerfully before William could finish. For once William couldn't hide his surprise.

The Trewsbury family was one of the richest families in London and everyone knew their name. They had properties all along Park Lane and the surrounding Mayfair area. That explained why his accent was so posh compared to Clara's family upbringing.

"So how did you know Clara?" Eliza asked, confused as to how he and Clara could have known each other.

"We were … close friends."

"How close?" William continued, keeping his firm tone. Colin shook his head unhappy with the question, but reluctantly answered.

"We were romantically involved, if that is your question Inspector." He answered, frustrated. He'd come here for answers, not to be interrogated himself.

"I see. Her friends and family that I spoke with, never mentioned her being involved with anyone," Eliza confirmed.

"They wouldn't, Clara and I were very discreet. We never told anyone."

"Why not?" Eliza asked confused.

"Miss Scarlet, I am a forty five year old widower, far from an appropriate suitor for a twenty two year old young lady, despite my worth."

Eliza exchanged glances with William, as they both relaxed their stances. At least they now knew that this man posed them no threat.

"So how did you both meet?" Eliza asked, hoping to pry a little more information about Clara from him, since he clearly knew her far better then he had previously let on.

Colin closed his eyes and smiled, reminiscing.

"We met in St James Park, I was walking my dog and she'd walked over the Thames from her home in Southwark. It was a pure meeting by chance on a beautiful sunny day. My dog took an instant liking to Clara, and she to him. We found ourselves arranging to meet and taking a stroll together most days, and well…. We knew it not appropriate, but matters of the heart seldom are. Clara was such a breath of fresh air after my wife's death. She was always so happy, so positive. It was like she smiled, and the world smiled with her."

Eliza recognized the look on this mans face. It was similar to the way Detective Phillips had spoken about his Emily. Eliza could see the love written all over this mans face, and there was no denying it was genuine.

"I knew when she didn't turn up for our scheduled walk that something was wrong, but as you say, Clara never told a sole about me, so I wasn't told of her disappearance. After a few days of her not showing up, I wanted to find out what had happened, I assumed she was perhaps ill. I knew where she lived, so I went to her house one day, saw her sister, and she told me that Clara was missing, presumed run away, but I knew that not to be the case."

"Why not?" William asked.

"Because if Clara had of run away, she would have run to me, we would have gone together. I knew something…" Colin paused, upset, but took a moment to compose himself. "I knew something bad must have happened, which is why I came to you Miss Scarlet. I couldn't tell anyone the truth, as to who I was, I couldn't risk it getting back to her family, and I assumed you would not ask too many questions of me. I guess I rather mistook you Miss Scarlet."

He looked up at her, apologetic, and Eliza nodded her acceptance of that. He wasn't the first person to underestimate her, and he was unlikely to be the last.

"But please if something has happened to her, I must know," Colin pleaded with them.

Eliza stared over at William. She knew in theory they couldn't tell him what had happened. They shouldn't say anything, not before telling her own family, but the man sat in front of her was broken. He'd already lost his wife, and now his second chance at love. She wanted to tell him, but William spoke first.

"Mr Trewsbury, we do believe that we may have found Clara's body." William soften his tone, not wanting to cause this man further heartache.

Eliza's own heart broke as she watch him take in William's words. His eyes shut tight and his fist push against his lips as he fought to keep his composure with them.

"Did she suffer? Was it an accident?" He asked sadly.

"We don't have the full information as of yet," William offered, hoping to spare him the pain of all the details.

"My poor Clara."

"We will be having a full investigation into her death, once we've spoken with her family," William told him gently.

"I know you do not have to offer me any consolation, but if you wouldn't mind, could you keep me informed? I can pay you any money, give you anything you need, to find out what happened to her. I wont be able to mourn her as I wish, or even attend a funeral, so I should like to help give her family something of comfort."

"I'm sure Miss Scarlet here will be able to keep you updated." William knew it was totally against the rules, after all Mr Trewsbury was not in anyway family, but even William could see his heartbreak.

"Thank you. Thank you for finding her Miss Scarlet. If not bringing her home."

Eliza leaned against her office door as she closed it behind Mr Trewsbury. She felt so low, and all she wanted to do was cry, for him, for Clara, for her family. This case wasn't turning out at all how she thought it would.

"That poor man," she said, breaking the silence between her and William that was dwarfing the room.

"I've got to admit, I think he almost broke me," William said, with a sigh. He was beyond grateful that at least Mr Trewbury had turned out to be someone who was not untoward.

"It's just awful." Eliza pushed away from her door and moved to sit against her desk next to William.

"You okay?" he asked, catching her arm with his knuckles. He could see the sadness in her eyes, yet he knew how strong she was. She didn't need his concern.

"I don't know," Eliza admitted sadly, shrugging her shoulders honestly.

"That was not at all how I expected this to go," Eliza told him. "I mean that man is devastated, and he can't even so much as offer his condolences to her family. He doesn't exist."

If anything, now Eliza was even more determined then ever to find out what had happened, to Clara, and those other women.

"We need to find who ever is doing this," she told William firmly.

To be Continued….


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - Whist this doesn't give any actual spoilers, it does refer to the cases from Episodes 3 and 4, so if you've not yet seen those episodes, I'd suggest you wait till you've seen those episodes before reading further.

Part 9

William arrived at Scotland Yard in a foul mood. He didn't like to admit it, but Mr Trewsbury had got to him, and he'd told more husbands, wives, and families about their loved ones deaths then he'd had hot dinners.

He'd left Eliza at her office totally focused on Clara's case, which he hoped meant that it would keep her busy and away from him long enough to do what he needed to do. He needed space to concentrate and didn't need her distraction this afternoon.

"Ah Duke." Detective Phillips caught him in the corridor as he walked to his office.

"Yeah,"

"This message came for you while you were out," Phillips said, holding out a folded note.

William took it from him, unfolded it and read it.

B Sherwood, 142 York Grove, New cross. M

William had to admit, Moses had come up with something pretty darn fast. He still didn't like him, but he was beginning to perhaps see why Eliza went to him to get her information.

William pulled out his pocket watch. It was just after 1. He gave a heavy sigh, pondering his next steps in this investigation.

"Have we heard back from any of the banks about Barnaby Sherwood yet?" He asked Phillips.

"Not yet, they have to check employment records, so might take a day or two."

"We don't have a day or two," William growled with frustration. "Right, you and Honeychurch, with me."

If this was the only lead they had, he was going with it.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

York Grove was a long road with lots of small run down, one up one down house's. It was busy with people and carriages, and it wasn't going to be easy to be inconspicuous as three policemen looking round a house.

It took a while but they finally located the house and William walked up the steps with PC Honeychurch behind him and banged on the front door, while Phillips went down the steps and looked through the small window at the floor below.

"Looks a bit deserted Duke," Phillips called out.

William looked around the street and saw an older woman, dressed in worn out work clothes sitting out the front of her house in a chair with a cup and saucer. She seemed to be watching the world go by, and she'd certainly noticed them.

"Excuse, I'm Detective Inspector Wellington," William called from the top step to the woman. "You wouldn't happen to know who lives here?"

"There's a young lad, that lives there. Haven't seen him for a while though. He's not often around," she called back.

"Can you tell me what he looks like?" He asked. The woman took a second to take a sip of her tea before replying.

"Tall, fair haired, not particularly much to look at through." That description could describe half of London, William thought.

"You want me to break the door?" Phillips asked quietly, as he joined William and PC Honeychurch on the top steps. William nodded, they needed to look around, and he didn't want to wait for an invitation.

"Just try and do it without making a scene."

Phillips turned the door handle and gave the wooden door a good shove with his whole body. It didn't take much to open it. They glanced around and tried to make it seem like the door had been always open. William and Phillips drew their guns, and William motioned for PC Honeychurch to wait outside while they went it.

Carefully and quietly William and Detective Phillips entered the house to make a search. Slowly they walked in, listening for noise, guns held firm. William motioned for Phillips to go upstairs, while he took the main floor.

The house was dark and lacked basic furniture or lighting. As the women had suggested, it didn't seem very lived in. The fireplaces didn't look like they had been used recently. The drawing room was cold and empty, and the dinning room and kitchen not much better.

William found the door, which led to the downstairs, and what would normally be considered the servants room. The door was locked, but William gave it a kick to open it. It looked even darker down there then the main floor and the small downstairs window that Phillips had looked through seemed to not let in much daylight. Slowly he walked down the narrow staircase.

The downstairs room was one large dark and dusty room and it was mostly empty. William saw a candlestick with a partly melted candle, and a packet of matches on a small table next to the stairs. Once he was happy no one was there, he lowered his gun, and lit the candle.

Taking in his surrounding with more light, he could see the room more clearly. There was a mattress on the floor with just dirty pillow and a thin blanket, and a small fireplace, which was cold but had ashes in, so had clearly been used recently. However, there were no clothes, or wardrobe, or anything that else that might suggest someone lived here.

Slowly William turned around and held up the candle as he took in the wall behind him. He couldn't hide his shock, as he heard Phillips walking down the stairs.

"Nothing upstairs Duke… What the hell?"

What the hell indeed… Both of them stared wide-eyed at the collage of photographs and newspaper cuttings that were almost nailed to the wall. There must have been maybe 40 or 50 photographs, all of dead women, William reckoned, as he looked over the wall, and tons of newspaper cuttings related to different murders.

William stared in disbelief, as he looked over the pictures and picked out the photographs of the women from the files they've been going through. He found Sara Gilbert easily and then Hannah Sadler, along with some women he didn't recognize from their files. There were undoubtedly more dead women here then just the 6 they knew of.

Then something else, in the far corner of the wall from him caught his eye, something very familiar. He took a dew steps closer to the large newspaper cutting, and he stared at it, and the ones around it. He felt his blood run cold.

It was the police times cover of Eliza's case of ghostly terror, and around it was cuttings of the suffragette bomb plot with his name all over it, and the coverage of the foiled forgery gang, with both their names together in black and white.

If whoever was doing this wanted his attention, they had it, in full now.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As William had suspected, Eliza didn't wait long to go and find Moses to see if he had any information for her. Moses tried his best to distract her, send her away elsewhere, but Eliza could always detect when Moses was lying to her. Despite his best efforts, she knew he was playing her for a fool, and he'd buckled and told her he'd given the address straight to The Inspector instead.

Furious wasn't nearly a strong enough word to describe how mad Eliza was. In fact, after she left Moses and found a carriage to take her straight to Scotland Yard, her anger only grew along the journey. William was about to get a piece of her mind.

"Where is he?" She declared angrily to Detective Phillips as she stormed into the main office building and saw him walking towards her in the corridor.

"In his office?" Phillips said slowly, as he backed well away from her. Eliza didn't stop, she moved quickly passed him, with a face like thunder. She saw William's office door was open and headed straight to it.

"William Wellington you absolute…" she raged as she stormed into his office, with every curse word she knew running through her mind.

"Eliza…" William said politely, knowing what was coming. He stood up from his desk quickly and walked over to close his office door, though he was pretty sure that wasn't going to hold the sound of her shouting.

"How dare you!" She fumed at him.

"How dare I what?" He tried to pretend he didn't know what she meant, but he knew full well why she was mad. He was more annoyed that Moses hadn't bought him more time.

"Oh don't you give me the innocent act! You know exactly what I'm talking about. I didn't realize you and Moses had become such good friends!"

"We're not," he clarified seriously.

"Well you seemed quite happy to ask him for his information! The information I asked for, and then, you tell him not to tell me! How's that work?"

"Eliza I needed that information straight away. I couldn't wait for whenever you decided it was worth me knowing." William tried to keep calm for once, but that was quite hard when she was shouting at him.

"Excuse me! I thought I was working this case with you, my mistake!" Eliza started pacing, "You had no right to do that."

"No right to do what? Try and keep you safe?" William's own frustration was rising and he couldn't help but raise his own voice.

"Keep me safe! This had nothing to do with that. You just can't take that I might have got some vital piece of information before you."

"Oh come on I couldn't careless about that. What I care about is that I know you, you would have gone straight to that house, by yourself, without me or any back up."

"You don't know that," she returned, but she knew he was probably right.

"Do you want to know what we found in that house?" William shouted as she stood still again, and glared her anger at him.

"He's got pictures, of dead women. Loads of them! 12 dead women at the last count, and those are the ones we can identify. He had them all laid out like some sort of trophy."

Eliza shook her head, he was not winning this one, she was not letting him off the hook. She had just as much right to be there as he did. She opened her mouth to reply but William didn't let her get a word in.

"He had cuttings, of our work, mine and yours. He wants Scotland Yard to notice him. He knows we've work together, he knows to get my attention he only has to get to you!"

Eliza went to speak but she held back, something flashed in William's eyes, a fear she'd never noticed before. It was just for a moment, but it was there, and made her stop.

"Now you can hate me as much as you like Eliza, but your safety is important to me, and I will not apologise for that!"

He was now shouting at her, and staring at her straight in the eyes, almost pleading with her to listen to him, hear the words he wasn't saying to her. She paused just for a moment and narrowed her eyes at him.

"We are not finished with this conversation William," She told him coldly, but her anger slightly dispersed. She wasn't afraid, but she could see his concern for her was there and genuine.

"Fine," William returned, his anger slowly calming.

"Now I'm going to go outside and ask PC Honeychurch to escort you home in a carriage, and he will stay there until I come and see you. Is that clear?"

Eliza rolled her eyes, shook her head and growled at him. He just had to take over didn't he? Had to send her home in a carriage with police protection. Had to…. Eliza stopped as something clicked in her mind.

William turned round to walked to his door, but she grabbed his arm to stop him, pulling him back round to look at her.

"That's it William," she said, strangely calm after their shouting just moments earlier. Her mind was suddenly whirling.

"What is?" William asked confused.

"A carriage. He must have a carriage. He's a carriage driver."

"What?" William asked confused, having no idea what she was talking about, because she hadn't actually given him a full sentence, and he hadn't suddenly turned into a mind reader.

"Think about it, we all do it everyday, get in a carriage, go somewhere. I've taken about 5 today, you don't think about the person driving it. If he drives a carriage, he could arrange to pick up these women any time, see who they meet, befriend them, but not enough for anyone to notice them…"

"I thought he was a banker?" William asked, wondering how she had made a jump to a carriage driver.

"Have you found any evidence of that? He might have just said he was a banker, to sound successful. Maybe he was a banker, I don't know, but he has access to a carriage and a horse. He'd be able to create a trusting relationship with each of these women, move the bodies at night without being noticed."

William rubbed his beard and thought for a moment processing Eliza's words in his own mind. Everything she was saying made perfect sense. She was perhaps on to something.

"You're right, that's a strong possibility. Each one of the women that we know about, they were on their way to somewhere that they never turned up to."

They both sighed, and stared at each other. This was bad. This was very, very bad. They were both quiet for a moment, while they breathed and gathered their thoughts.

A gentle knock on Williams door made them both jump. Phillips opened the door and carefully leaned his head round, unsure what sort of a reception he might get, having heard their shouting.

"Duke, I thought you should know, there's a couple at the front desk. They want to report their daughter missing," he told them calmly.

Eliza and William shared a look, and they knew things were about to get much worse.

To be continued….


	10. Part 10

Part 10.

Eliza was waiting in the meeting room on the second floor of Scotland Yard that they had been working in that morning. She was reading over William's writing on the chalkboard, waiting for him to come back after he spoke with the parents in reception. She knew she shouldn't wish that he would hurry up, but she desperately wanted to know what was going on.

There were a handful of photographs spread out on the table of the photo and newspaper-clipping wall from the house that William had gone to earlier. She was still rather irked with him that he'd cut her, but now wasn't the time for that argument. They had much more pressing things to be worried about.

The photos were too small for her to be able to see anything clearly, no matter how hard she tried. She'd have to wait until the actual photographs were brought in from evidence to look at them properly. She picked up one of the photographs showing the newspaper clippings, the front cover of her police times article was clear to see even in such a small photograph. She had to admit the fact that this killer seemed to know who she was made her slightly nervous.

She turned around when she heard the handle on the door, and saw William walk in the room and shut the door behind him.

"What happened?" She asked quickly, folding her arms across her chest, while William slowly walked towards her. He appeared worn down and his shoulders looked like he had the weight of the world on them.

"Well, the missing girl is Natalie Matthews. She was supposed to meet and stay over night with a friend yesterday, but never turned up." William rubbed the back of his neck as he reached her and perched on the edge of the table.

"So why are they reporting her missing now?" She asked him, confused why it had taken the family so long. Could that mean they had less the 2 days to find her?

"The friend she was supposed to be staying with assumed she missed a message cancelling, so it wasn't till she didn't arrive home today that it was realized she was missing."

"So what now?"

"We're putting a message out to the carriage companies now, see if any have a Barnaby Sherwood working for them."

William sighed, as he looked at her he could tell she was anxious to do something. She stretched her fingers and then spun round to lean her hands on the table.

"Do you still think this Barnaby is the right person?"

"Well, the address that Moses gave us was listed for B Sherwood, and that's where the pictures were, but that could just be an assumed name. It's not looking likely that he's a banker, 3 of the banks have come back and confirmed that there is no Barnaby Sherwood working for them."

"You mean the address that Moses gave you, not us," she said pointedly with narrow eyes and a cold stare. He chose to ignore her, and continued with his train of thought.

"If he's a carriage driver though, there is going to be massive ramifications."

There were hundreds of carriages all around London, there would be wide spread panic if it was thought that people using them were potentially not safe.

"We don't know that yet," Eliza confirmed, sensing William's concern and wanting to help settle him. "Lets look over the files again, maybe there is something we've missed."

"Eliza, we went through those with a fine tooth comb this morning, there's nothing more in them." It was getting late, and if he was honest, he couldn't face fruitlessly looking through all the files again.

"The photographs from the house then?" Eliza asked, itching to do something.

"They need to be catalogued first, they won't be ready for us to go through until the morning."

"So, there is nothing more we can do?" She asked him frustrated.

"Not at the moment." William rubbed the back of his neck again.

Eliza released a heavy sighed of annoyance, as she started pacing. She was never very good at sitting still doing nothing, and now was no different. She couldn't just sit and wait.

"There must be something." She stared at the map she'd plotted all the locations on, but nothing was standing out. She leaned back on the desk, and she could feel William staring at her, but he kept quiet for a couple of minutes and let her stare at the map.

"Look, let me get Honeychurch to take you home." He told her softly, his voice full of concern. "Rest, I'll pick you up in my carriage first thing in the morning, we can start again then," he said calmly. She was taking this personally now, becoming emotional, and that wasn't going to end well for either of them.

"I don't need a police baby sitter William!" she exclaimed.

"I know, but I would feel more comfortable knowing you're home safe." William continued to be calm. He was too tired to fight, and didn't have it in him right now to get into an argument with her.

"Are you sending Phillips home?" Eliza asked pointedly.

"Eliza please," William started, almost begging her, annoyed that once again, she wouldn't listen to him.

"What? After today, how do I know you're not just trying to get me out of here." She folded her arms defensively, waiting for his response.

"Please, I'm not. There's nothing more we can do here tonight," he told her honestly.

Eliza studied William, she always knew when he was lying, and he didn't appear to be. He did appear to be exhausted. He wasn't even trying to fight with her. Perhaps a clear head in the morning would help.

"Fine, I will let PC Honeychurch escort me home in a carriage, but that's it. I don't need a babysitter!"

"Thank you." William breathed a sigh of relief that Eliza might actually do something that he asked for once.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eliza sat one side of the carriage with PC Honeychurch on the seat opposite her in his immaculate navy blue police uniform and his helmet on his lap. He was purposely avoiding her eye contact and looked almost as uncomfortable as she felt. Why she had agreed to this she wasn't entirely sure.

Having PC Honeychurch escort her home didn't exactly make her feel that much safer. They weren't exactly friends, and he was slightly terrified of her, which she ordinarily quite enjoyed, but this was just plain awkward.

She looked out the carriage window in the doorway and hoped that the short journey to her home would be over soon. Though she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop her brain from thinking enough to actually sleep. She knew with the late hour that Ivy would be asleep.

The minutes were ticking by as she was staring, not really focusing on anything going by out the window, lost in her own world. Unexpectedly, she noticed something strange, in the distance on the left she could make out St Paul's Cathedral in the darkness.

That didn't make sense. She didn't live in that direction. With a slight fear she sat up straighter finally taking in the surroundings and she suddenly realized they were on the wrong side of the Thames. This wasn't right. This wasn't at all where they were supposed to be.

"Honeychurch, where are we?" She asked, confused and feeling slightly panicked.

"Excuse me Miss?" he questioned, with surprise that she was addressing him since they'd been in silence since the moment they'd left Scotland Yard.

"This isn't the way to my house," she told him.

PC Honeychurch looked at her wide-eyed, as he too started looking out the carriage doorway windows, trying to work out where they were.

"Something's wrong, this isn't right," Eliza told him, trying to sound calm, and not give away her fear and worry to him.

They felt the carriage turn right and saw out the window and that they were heading away from the River Thames, going even further in the wrong direction to her house.

PC Honeychurch put his head out the window to see if he could alert the driver. Perhaps this was a simple case of mistaking the address they were supposed to go to but the driver kept looking straight ahead and made no acknowledgement of him.

The carriage started to slow down, and Honeychurch was still leaning out the window. Eliza put her hand on his knee to get his attention, which only made PC Honeychurch jump and bang the top of his head on the roof of the carriage as he moved back inside the window.

"Honeychurch, whatever happens, you get a message to William," she told him quietly and firmly.

"What?" He asked in confusion.

"Trust me. You need to get a message to Inspector Wellington." She was serious, and he quickly realised that she meant for him to leave her.

"I'm not leaving you, The Duke would kill me!" he told her terrified. He was looking at her rather panicked, though Eliza wasn't sure if that was because of what was happening or the idea that William might actually kill him if he left her.

"Not if the driver gets you first," she told him incredibly calmly. "When this carriage stops, you run, as fast as you can. You don't stop and you tell William this…."

The carriage slowed to a stop, and PC Honeychurch opened the carriage door and looked out, still hoping there was an innocent explanation to what was happening, only he saw the driver wasn't in his seat. He hesitated for just a moment as he looked back at Eliza still sat poised like a lady in her seat.

She was still incredibly calm, as she just nodded and mouthed run. So he climbed out the carriage and ran without looking back. His PC helmet fell to the floor of the carriage in his haste, but he didn't stop for it.

Eliza finally moved from her seat to the door to look out the window to see PC Honeychurch running away as fast as he could down the street. Without warning, she saw something hit him on the back of his head and she could only watch helpless as he fell to the ground.

She went to scream as she felt someone behind her cover her mouth with a cloth, and an arm around her waist before she was pulled backwards into the carriage.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

William was exhausted, as he sat at his desk. He reached to the table behind him for the open bottle of Whiskey, poured another sizeable measure into his glass and then took a large gulp. He stared over the report he'd been writing up on the day's work. He sighed and took out at his pocket watch from his waist coat to check for the time. It was getting late, gone half past midnight.

He picked up his paper again, trying to read through what he'd written, but the time was bothering him. It had been well over two hours since Eliza had left with PC Honeychurch. Why hadn't he checked in with him yet?

He'd asked him to come by his office as soon he'd got back. Eliza didn't live that far from Scotland Yard, so he certainly should have been back by now. Had she changed her mind and agreed to let him stay?

He was wondering if perhaps he should go to her house and check, but it was so late he didn't want to disturb her if she was sleeping.

"DUKE!"

William looked up as he heard his name being screamed by Detective Phillips from the corridor, before he almost fell through the open doorway into his office.

"What's wrong?"

"You've got to come, NOW!"

From the tone of Phillips voice, William didn't hesitate. He got out of his seat and followed him, and they both ran out his office and down the corridor to the main entrance.

PC Honeychurch was lying on the floor of the entrance to Scotland Yard surrounded by 5 other uniformed officers, bleeding badly from his face and hands. He'd torn a huge hole in the knee of his uniform, and lost his hat. One officer was holding a cloth to the back of his head. He looked badly injured and shocked. William's mind started racing as he took in the scene in front of him.

"He took her!" PC Honeychurch managed, looking directly at William, breathing hard and clearly in pain.

"What?" William's heart started pounding. No, he'd sent Eliza home to be safe. What had happened? He didn't understand. They were meant to take his carriage and driver and take Eliza home, why hadn't they?

"I'm sorry I … She made me leave…." PC Honeychurch was so panicked as to how his Inspector would react to the news.

"Who? Eliza?" William queried. Why would she make Honeychurch leave her?

"She said I had to get you a message, she said to tell you Deptford Park. Said you needed to know. I'm sorry sir. I didn't want to leave her, but she made me."

PC Honeychurch looked devastated, but there was really nothing he could have done. Eliza could be incredibly stubborn, and everything had happened so quickly, there was no time for him to argue with her. He also doubted that they would have got very far if they had both run when the carriage stopped.

William shook his head, Deptford Park, what the hell did that mean. Who gives someone a message of just a place! Damn it Eliza! He needed a map. He ran straight back into his office, and his eyes darted over the map on his wall by the filing cabinets.

Deptford Park, he scrolled his finger over the map looking for it, whilst cursing her at the same time. It took him a few minutes but finally, he double tapped his finger on the map when he found it, near New Cross.

It was a large wooded park, but there was a major carriage store on it's edge, and a stable yard located with it. That carriage park would be incredibly convenient for the house they'd searched earlier.

"Clever Eliza. Very clever!"

William grabbed some spare bullets from his desk draw and threw them in his jacket pocket. He grabbed his coat from the coat stand, not bothering to bring his hat, and ran back out to the main entrance. PC Honeychurch was still on the floor surrounded by officers, looking paler then he had moments earlier.

"Well done Honeychurch!" he told him. "Phillips, you six with me!" he said, pointing to a group of four PC's and two Detectives that had gathered around their fallen colleague. Then he turned to two of the officers who were attending to PC Honeychurch.

"You two, get him to a hospital, now!" William demanded, before leaving the building with his officers in tow.

To be continued….


	11. Chapter 11

Part 11

Eliza's head was throbbing as she came to. The floor that she was laying on was cold and hard with loose stands of hay all around. It took her a moment to be able to move and even sit up. She clutched her forehead taking slow deep breaths.

Blinking she realized her wrists were tied up with a long rope. Her eyes followed along the rope and she saw that the other end was attached to a metal loop in the wall near the floor. If she could stand, she wouldn't be able to get far.

She touched her hands to the temple on right side of her head. She could feel a cut and some wet blood, where she must have somehow hit her head. Perhaps when she tried to fight off whoever took her, or when she was passed out in the carriage.

She pressed the sleeve of her jacket to her head to try and stop the bleeding. Pulling it away, she checked her sleeve, there was a fair bit of blood on it, and she knew Ivy was not going to be impressed with getting it out of her jacket. She pressed it against her head again, and then slowly she looked around to properly take in where she was.

The only light in the room was coming from the full moon that was beaming through a grate at the top of the wall to her right. From the height of the grate, she assessed she must have been below ground somehow. It was a large cold, grey stone room, with only a wooden double door on the left, and lots of straw scattered on the ground around her.

The only sounds she could hear from outside were the occasional owls hoot or horses whinny. The grate was so high she couldn't see anything out of it but the moon and the night sky. She tried pulling at the ropes on her wrists, but it was no good. They were so tight that tugging at them was only starting to leave burn marks on her skin.

"Damn it," she whispered to herself. It was so cold that she could see the puff of white steam from her breath in the moonlight. How was she getting herself out of this?

She cursed herself for not being more careful with the carriage they had chosen. Why hadn't she thought more, instead of just blindly getting in the one that was waiting outside? She realised this was clearly part of the drivers plan. How he knew when to start the three-day countdown. He was the one who brought the parents to the police station to report their child missing. He had to know when it happened.

She felt for the chain of the gold necklace that William had given her a few days earlier, and un-tucked it from her shirt. She hadn't taken it off since her birthday. She held it tight rubbing the E pendant with her fingers, saying a silent prayer that somehow he might find her.

Based on where the carriage was heading she'd given PC Honeychurch her best guess, and she could only hope was that her guess was right. She also had to hope that Honeychurch could get her message to William. The last thing she remembered was seeing something hit him and him falling to the ground.

There was no guarantee that William would get her message, or that she was right. So, she couldn't just sit there and wait for him. She would have to try and do something to get herself out of here. She took a deep breath and tucked the necklace back into its hiding place under her shirt.

She pulled herself to stand up and moved over to the metal loop on the wall. She crouched down and examined the rope to see if she could untie herself from there. She fiddled with the rope as best she could with her hands tied together for a few minutes, before she heard the sound of footsteps from outside the room, and stood up, turning to look at the double door.

It was a dark doorway, and it creaked as one door opened, and someone stepped into the shadows. She couldn't make out who they were, just an outline of the cloak and top hat they were wearing.

"I see you're awake Miss Scarlet," the man's voice said coolly.

"How do you know my name?" Eliza asked, making her voice sound as strong as she could. She stood tall, and pushed her shoulders back defiantly. She didn't know what she was up against, but she didn't want him to think her weak.

"That's the joy of what I do, you know. I see people everyday, and yet they never remember me." There was a happy, cold, menacing tone to the deep voice as he spoke in a confident posh London accent.

"When would I ever have met you?"

"We've met a few times actually." Eliza felt a shiver down her spine.

"I have driven you to your office, to your home, to Scotland Yard. To that Police Detective you seem to like spending time with." He knew far too much about her as far as she was concerned. How had she never noticed him before?

"Well since you know so much about me, how about you tell me who you are?" She tried to quell her fear, remain calm, and sound as fierce as possible.

"All in good time Miss, all in good time." He slowly started moving towards her, moving inch-by-inch he crept, one step at a time, but he kept to the shadows of the room so she couldn't make him out in detail.

"What do you want?" Eliza queried.

"What does anyone want? Recognition. Do you know how long I've been able to do what I do? How long I've waited for someone to sit up and take notice of me."

"Well you have our attention now."

"Ah, but do I. Do you know what I'm capable of?" he queried with a tinge of intrigue.

"You won't hurt me," Eliza told him, sounding far braver then she felt. "You do and all of Scotland Yard will be hunting you down."

If something happened to her, she knew William would stop at nothing, and possibly kill this man with his own bare hands, regardless of the consequences.

"Perhaps." Whoever he was, he was giving nothing away with his words.

"Is your name really Barnaby?" Eliza asked, but the man just chuckled, an unnerving sound to say the least.

"Oh dear old Barnaby, it sounds so posh doesn't it. It's funny how a posh name and smart suit can turn a person's eye. Make smart people trusting. Believe whatever you tell them."

He kept moving closer, and Eliza could make out the smart shoes, black suit, cloak, and top hat, clearly he was dressed as a carriage driver, so either he was one, or he just dressed like one to fool people.

"Yet they still turn your down? Is that why you kill them, because they aren't interested in you?"

She was pushing his patience, though with her hands tied, she was really in no position to defend herself if she pushed him too far.

"Those women, running around London like they own the place. Going here and there, by themselves. Meeting whomever, doing whatever. Those women needed to be taught some proper lessons. They needed to learn their place!"

He was suddenly firmer with her. Eliza could tell she'd hit a nerve. He was starting to get angry, and lose the eerie calm patience he'd had when he walked in the room. She could hear the distain in his voice as he spoke.

"A woman's place is at home?" Eliza said disapprovingly.

"A woman should respect a man!" he shouted angrily. Eliza jumped back slightly.

She was making him mad, and as he got closer to her, Eliza wasn't sure that was her best course of action. So she decided to change her tact.

"Tell me about Clara Wilson."

At the sound of that name he seemed to stop and think momentarily. Curious as to what this lady might know, and why she would bring that name up.

"Clara Wilson?" he questioned. "Why the interest in her?"

"She was different to the others. Why?"

"I can't say I know what you mean by the others, but…" he said, careful not to say too much. "I knew Clara, so kind and sweet. So rather plain, yet somehow able to run around with such a rich, well to do man."

Eliza knew instantly that he was talking about Mr Colin Trewsbury, so clearly he'd seen Clara with him. Perhaps he'd dropped her off for her afternoon stroll in St James Park, and seen the two of them together. Eliza listened as the man continued his speech.

"Behavior so unbecoming of a young lady. She tried to win my affection to save her life, and you know I actually believed her. I kept her around for a while, only she was just biding her time, she tried to run, and well…" he finished. He sounded almost disappointed he had to kill her.

"So you take your carriage out, meet women, get to know them, take them places, then kill them when you decide you don't like how the live?"

"It's amazing how people trust the person driving them around. Some talk to you, agree to meet you at certain times and places, others barely notice you, or that you've driven them a number of times. Like you, a lady detective no less, and yet I don't believe you've ever taken a moments notice of me."

Well, Eliza thought, she'd be paying more attention to who was driving her going forward. Perhaps she'd even consider walking more instead of taking a carriage.

"You're no better then any of those women. Running around London with police officers, playing detective with them." He was getting so close to her she could smell his cheap cologne, and make out an outline of his features.

"Who are you to tell me or any other woman how she should live?"

"Men are in charge in this world, and you'd do well to remember that!" He shouted loudly and angrily.

Eliza was used to William and his temper, but she knew no matter how hard she pushed him he'd never actually hurt her. This man was not like William, she couldn't be sure what he would do next.

"I'd get used to being in here, you'll be here for a few days." He told her coldly returning to his eerie calm again.

"William and his men will find me," she warned, sounding as confident as she could.

The man finally stepped fully into the moonlight that was pouring in through the grate in the wall. He stood toe to toe with her, so close he could feel his breath against her face. She could finally take in his features. Mrs Wilson was correct in her assessment that there was nothing remarkable about him, Eliza thought, as she looked him up and down.

She matched him in height. He had pale skin with a few lines giving away an idea that he was maybe older then the age he portrayed. His eyes bore into hers as he stared at her hard with cold deep dark hazel brown eyes, and a scowl on his lips.

Eliza kept as still and calm as she could, despite being completely unsure of what he was going to do.

"I wouldn't bet on that,' he responded slowly and calmly.

He gave her a hard shove, pushing her backwards making her stumble into the wall behind and making her hit the back of her head, before turning, on his heel and walking out of the room.

Eliza stayed still trying to regain some composure and finally let out a long shaky breath while she rubbed the back of her head. At least her tied up hair had softened the bang on the back of her head when she'd hit the wall.

She was starting to shiver. She needed to find a way to keep warm. Could this be why the last two murders were different? Perhaps he'd not drugged them, perhaps they were frozen half to death before he killed them so they couldn't fight back.

She pulled herself back together, and returned her attention back to the metal loop on the wall near the floor. She started trying desperately to untie the rope that held her. To the wall on her right, she noticed there was a small gap in the cement between one of the grey bricks. Closing an eye she peered through, and saw it went into the next room.

On the other side she could just make out another woman, sitting huddled in the far corner. She wore a long grey skirt and white shirt with what looked like lace on it, with a light coloured woolen shawl wrapped around her. She too looked like she was tied up.

"Hello," Eliza called through the gap. "Can you hear me?"

It was a whisper, since she didn't want to alert who ever their captor was. She peered through the gap, hoping that whoever they were could hear her. She saw them move fractionally, which gave Eliza some hope that they were at least alive.

"Are you Natalie?" Eliza asked through the small gap, remembering the name of the girl who'd been reported missing at Scotland Yard just before she'd left.

The girl looked pale and cold, and her eyes withdrawn from crying, her head was rested against the wall. She only nodded a yes, too exhausted and cold to move further.

"My name is Eliza, I work with the police at Scotland Yard. I'm certain help will be here soon."

Natalie once again nodded and closed her eyes. Eliza turned her attention back to the metal loop. Her fingers were freezing, and she was properly starting to shiver but she had to get the knot untied. She blew her breath over her fingers and tried again with the rope and the metal loop on the wall.

"Come on," she whispered, willing the rope to move, pleading with it. Then suddenly it moved just a faction. It was loosening slowly, one tiny movement at a time, and then finally the first knot unthreaded. Motivated Eliza pushed on to loosen it more and undo the second knotted loop.

She could have been trying for seconds, minutes, or even hours, Eliza wasn't sure. It felt like a lifetime, but gradually she managed to untie the rope from around the metal loop. Her hands were still tied together, but at least she could move from the corner she'd been tied to.

She tried to pull at the rope round her wrists with her teeth, but it was too tight, and just cut the rope into her wrists even more. She quickly moved round the dark room to see if there was anything she could use to help maybe cut the rope, a jagged piece of metal somewhere, but there was nothing. She moved over to the door and placed her ear on it, wondering if she could hear anything.

She wasn't sure if it was safe for her to leave the room. With her hands tied and nothing around she could potentially use as a weapon, she was in no position to try and take on this killer if he caught her having escaped her room. On the other hand, did she really want to wait here freezing?

Just as she was trying to work out her best next course of action the sound of crunching gravel from outside came through the grate, and a shadow crossed the room. Someone was outside…

To be continued….


	12. Part 12

Part 12

Instead of driving up to the front gates, William and his team had left the police carriages a way down the road, and instead walked through the park on foot to keep their element of surprise. They eventually reached the main outside wall and crept their way around the outside of the stable yard towards the main gates. The yard was large and fairly dark, and for William, part of him wished he'd brought a few more men.

On arrival, they had agreed they were splitting into 4 teams of 2, each team with a specific direction to look in. A Detective with a PC for 2 teams, taking the two north corners, and a team of two senior PC's taking the south corner to the left. William kept Detective Phillips at his side. They were headed to the south right corner of the grounds.

They entered the carriage and stable yard through large iron gates that gave a gentle squeak as they opened them enough to each get through and closed them again behind them. Without a word, and keeping to the darkest parts so as not to alert anyone to their presence, each pair quickly went off in their agreed separate directions with their guns ready.

The yard was noiseless apart from the occasional crunch of gravel under their shoes, and the odd whinny or huff from a horse in the distance. In places it had an eerily cold mist floating above the ground.

Whilst the night was dark, each of the large stone buildings had a fire lit torch hanging on most corners, which gave them some small pockets of light. William was grateful that there was a full moon and it was a cloudless night to help them see as they searched, even if it did make it bitterly cold. Their breath puffed out in white wisps in front of them as they walked.

The whole site had a number of different stone carriage house buildings, and black wooden horse stables. Some large some small, and it was anyone's guess which one Eliza might be in, if she was in any of them. William tried his best to push that thought out of his mind and concentrate on the matter in hand.

William and Detective Phillips walked quietly to their side of the site. There were wooden black horse stables to the right of them and various sized grey stone carriage house sheds to the left.

Heading to the left and over towards the carriage sheds, the first building they entered was a large stone building, full of 12 enclosed black painted Brougham carriages, each separated by wooden posts.

They conducted a thorough search of that building, checking each old looking worn down Brougham carriage and the space around them, opening each carriage door and searching inside them for clues. Phillips examined the whips that were lined up on wall hooks and the equipment racks and William looked over anything that didn't move and looked suspicious.

After they were sure it was empty they slowly walked back out and over to the next building to repeat their process. There was nothing of consequence in that shed, and they moved onto the next one. That one was similar to the first and held no clues.

They continued their methodical search into the next shed, this one full of different kinds of carriages, some elegant Growler branded ones that were large and fully enclosed with doors and a roof and 12 spoke wheels. There were also newer Hansom cabs that were wide open with no doors making them easy to check their wide leathers seats and around their even larger 18 spoke wheels.

The two detectives slowly walked the long length of the building. William was about to walk back up the shed to walk out the door they came in, when he noticed a small single doorway at the back of the shed. He motioned towards Phillips to follow him.

The door was so small that both men had to duck to walk through it as they exited the building. It was almost pitch-black this side of the building, with no fire lit torches here and the start of the thick woods just behind, but William continued to walk around carefully.

In the silence of the night, they could hear the gentle sound of something breathing in the distance, but it wasn't like the sound a person would make. It sounded more like a horse puffing from it nose, but the stables were the other side of the buildings, so it wasn't coming from there.

William tried to follow where he thought it was coming from. They continued walking around in the dark in search for the owner of the sound, until set back in the darkness towards the woods at the edge of the yard, they could make out a large horse hidden in the dark shadow of another building.

Without the aid of a light it was only the white stripe of fur down its nose and a ring of white fur around its hooves that made it stand out. As they got closer, they could see it was strapped up to a black enclosed Growler carriage, just waiting for its driver to return.

Slowly they approached the horse, afraid they might startle it and give away their presence. The horse gave a grunt as they got close, but Detective Phillips stepped in front and fed it something from his left hand, then petted it, settling it from alerting anyone to them. William looked at him curiously.

"Sugar cubes," he whispered. "Horse's love them," Phillips assured him.

William wasn't sure a sugar cube was the best thing to feed a horse, but it seemed to calm the animal while he moved on towards the carriage and Phillips petted the horse's nose, and appeared to feed it another cube.

The carriage door was unlocked, William opened it and glanced inside. He saw PC Honeychurch's police helmet half hidden on the floor under the seat to the left and Eliza's burgundy hat lay abandoned on the far corner of the same seat. At the very least that meant she was potentially here. William nodded to Phillips who came and stood next to him.

"That's Eliza's," William said quietly, pointing to the hat. Phillips agreed, having seen her wearing it earlier. "Lets keep moving."

Encouraged by finding Eliza's hat, William and Phillips moved on carefully in the darkness. They moved quickly through another carriage building before walking round to the next one.

They were just about to walk inside that building, when William looked towards the darken wood behind the building. On the ground, there were large wooden cellar doors that were set away from the back of the building walls. He walked over it, and pressed his foot lightly on it. It had a lock on one side and it didn't budge down when he trod on it.

Phillips put his hand out, motioning for William to stop. He put his hand inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a roll up dark green cloth that was held together with a thin cloth tie. He untied it, and shook it out reveling a selection of small metal tools tucked in tiny pockets inside it. He bent down and picked the lock with ease then opened up one side of the wooden doors.

It was pitch-black as they looked down in the void below. There were stone steps down on one side, and a slope the other, presumably for a horse. William couldn't see why anyone would want to take a horse down there, unless it was perhaps for slaughter.

Both men felt an uneasy nervousness in their stomachs as they exchanged a glance silently admitting they were going to have to go down there. William moved to grab a fire lit torch from the side of the nearest building, and letting out a heavy sigh, stepped forward to walk down the steps, and Phillips followed him.

At the bottom of the stairs in the cellar was a large long dark corridor. William held the fire torch high above his head to help him see his surrounding better. From what he could make out there were four sets of double wooden doors, two sets on either side. Hanging along the walls were various large rusty metal tools. There were picks, various sized saws, chains, horse muzzles and leather whips. What the hell was this place?

William resisted the urge to call out Eliza's name, not wanting to alert anyone further to them. Using the torch, he looked over to the two doors on the left then to the two on the right. The two on the left appeared to have a lock on them.

He motioned to Phillips to use his tools to unlock the first door. It didn't take him more then maybe 10 seconds to unlock it, and William had to admit he was suitably impressed with his new colleagues skill. He handed over the fire torch to Phillips and held out his gun, kicked the door open then walked in slowly.

He rounded the door and heard Eliza scream before she caught him off guard as she launched herself at him. Despite her tied hands, she partly knocked him off balance as she tried with all her might to struggle and attack him; unaware of who he was in the darkness.

It took William a few seconds to recover himself from her surprised ambush. He managed to duck her tied hands and then grabbed her round her waist. He spun them around and turned his back to her body slightly, protecting himself as she thumped his shoulder with her fists as hard as she possibly could.

"It's me, it's me." William finally repeated quietly, till her hits slowed and he was able to steady them both. They were both breathing heavily, while she took a moment to relax as she realised it wasn't the carriage driver returning, it was William.

Phillips had rounded the door and watched them both struggle with each other before they stopped fighting in a slight huddled of arms together. He used the fire torch to quickly look at the walls around and found a metal holder by the doorway to hang it in, and lit the room a fraction more.

With the aid of Phillip's light, William could actually see Eliza. He stared at her face noticing the large cut on the temple and dried blood on the side of her cheek. He placed a hand gently on her cheek and turned it to the light to examine the cut better.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, as he practically sat her down on the floor.

He could feel that she was shaking, but he couldn't tell if it was because of the cold, fear or pure adrenaline. He dropped his hand from her face and picked up her hands looking at the thick rope tied around them.

"I'm fine, I thought you were him," she said, relieved that it was William that had found her and not her captor.

William put his gun by his foot and made quick work of untying the rope to free her hands. He noticed the red raw burn marks on both her wrists from trying to free herself from the rope.

He rubbed his thumb over one and looked up and held her eyes for just a second. She was hurt, and he silently blamed himself for it. He should have taken her home himself. He should have made sure she got home safely.

"Where is he?" He whispered anxiously.

"I don't know. He was here. I'm not sure how long ago."

There was calmness to her tone as she felt her body relax for the first time in what felt like hours. Time had seemed to slow while she was held here. She had no idea how many minutes or hours had actually passed, only that it was still night.

"We found the carriage still outside, he won't be far." William told her, he knew they still weren't yet safe. "Who is he?" He needed to know what they were up against.

"He wouldn't say, but I don't think his name is Barnaby. The missing girl, Natalie, she's in the next room," Eliza whispered.

She wanted to go to her and make sure she was okay, untie her and get her out of the room next door.

William nodded and turned round to tell Detective Phillips to go and get the missing girl, but saw he the man creep up behind Phillips who had his back to the doorway. He was holding up a long metal pole ready to hit him.

"Phillips!"

Both William and Eliza shouted in unison, but it was too late. The man had stalked his way in the room, and hit Phillips hard on the back of his head with the smooth shiny metal pole, sending him crashing to the floor.

To be continued …


	13. Part 13

Part 13

William and Eliza watched helplessly as Detective Phillips got struck on the back of his head and dropped to the ground like a sack, face down and not moving. William could only assume this assailant was their suspect and Eliza's captor and took no chances.

He instantly grabbed his gun from by his foot and held it out firmly in the direction of their man. With his free hand he instinctively reached for Eliza, he stood up quickly pulling her up with him and moved himself to make sure she was safely behind him.

Their suspect remained silent as he regarded them in his room, and calmly took a few stalking steps sideways towards them. If he hadn't expected anyone to find them quite so quickly, he hid his surprise at their present well with his icy calm exterior.

"Detective Inspector Wellington isn't it? So nice to finally make the acquaintance of an officer of the great Scotland Yard." He told him with a false politeness.

"Don't move," William warned, his accent thick, holding his gun tightly and Eliza's arm even tighter.

"Put the gun away Inspector, that's far from necessary. I do so hate them." He waved his fingers as if she shoo William and his gun away.

He spoke eerily calmly and totally in control of himself, apparently unfazed by the situation he'd found himself in. He leered at them at them as he stalked the doorway back and forth.

"Drop the pole and get on the floor." William told him firmly.

William figured this was a fruitless request but asked it nonetheless. He could tell there was a steely cold determination in the person in front of him to be in control of this situation. William was going to have to keep his wits about him if he was to resolve this quickly.

"I don't think so," he replied, hitting the metal pole against his free hand, as if to show he had no intention of letting it go. He then spun it around in his fingers to show off, as a smile crept over his face.

With William holding her close behind him, Eliza could only step sideways slightly, but it was enough to see the man properly in the light for the first time. She could see his face more clearly in the warm firelight, though it did nothing to warm his features.

He'd taken off his top hat now and she could see the thinning light coloured hair, the surprisingly pale skin, his sunken cold dark hazel brown eyes, and his chilling smirk of confidence. What she would give to wipe that grin off his face!

Even as he tried to stand tall and seem intimidating, he was still small in height for a man and round in physical body appearance. His black suit of a carriage driver might have made him look the part, but in this light she could tell it was cheap, and to her, did little to help improve his supposed status in life. His cloak floated around him as he swayed on the balls of his feet while he moved back and forth.

She wasn't sure what the man's play was. Even from their slight distance, she could tell William was a good head taller then he was. William looked physically stronger and he was holding a gun out towards him. What hope did he have in getting away?

"I'm giving you to the count of 5 or I shoot you," William warned.

"No you won't, not in front of the lady." The man was full of self-confidence.

He had seen these two together, even seen some of their work. He had already made the assumption of an inappropriate romance between them. Why else would a ranking officer of Scotland Yard take the word of a woman, if not to get her into bed?

William blinked, perhaps he didn't want to shoot him, and certainly not in front of Eliza, but he knew that he might have to, and he would do it if he did.

"Who are you?" William asked

William had continued to keep a firm hold of Eliza's arm and he side-stepped and move them both backwards away from the man. He glanced over in Phillips direction, where he was laying motionless on the floor, passed out cold from the attack. From his distance it was difficult for William to tell if Phillips was breathing or not. He needed a plan and a quick one at that.

"I'd rather leave you to figure it out, you are a renowned police detective after all. Surely you can discover it."

William continued to move round slowly whilst shielding Eliza with his own body. An idea was formulating in his head, he just needed the man to move away from the doorway.

Eliza couldn't be sure what William was doing, but he wasn't letting her arm go. She certainly wasn't used to hiding behind anyone, but his firm grip meant on this occasion she had little choice but to go with it and to move around with him.

"You know I couldn't careless who you are. Either way you're going to pay for your crimes." William told him firmly, his Scottish accent strong, thick and clear, as he realised his way of taking control.

"On what evidence? Because I don't believe you have any. It's taken so long for anyone to even notice me." He was goading William and he knew it.

The man kept his eyes firmly on them, with an intimidating smile. He was in a position of control, and he took a self-assured step round and closer to them, clearly happy with his actions.

"I have enough," William lied, but sounded so confident the man gave a nervous laugh. He side-stepped again, moving Eliza along with him.

"I don't think so, Inspector." He practically spat out William's title. "I think I'm walking out of here, and you're going to let me."

He was overly confident with this thought. He knew he'd been careful, there was little to connect him to any of these women, and he'd been smart by keeping their bodies clean.

"Then you're delusional." There was no chance William was letting him go, he'd rather shoot him then let that happen.

"You know, I've been plying my trade for long enough, yet no one has ever paid the slightest bit of attention. Do you not wonder how?" He laughed, still careful not to admit to anything.

At this moment, William didn't really care how he'd been getting away with it. As far as he was concerned he'd made the mistake of perhaps wanting notoriety of his crimes, and that would be his failure. William was eager to continue to let him talk, he seemed to want to and all the while William was making minuscule unnoticeable movements forcing the man to move also.

"The key is never go to the same place twice in quick succession. Never have officers from the same station attend a crime. No police have ever knocked on my door. No journalist ever put anything together, even when the crimes were splashed all over their front covers. It was fun, reading about all those women, and wondering, waiting to see if this was the one the police would take interest in. Yet, no one ever did, so I continued to have my fun. I'm fairly certain if that man hadn't got your little friend here involved, you'd still be none the wiser about me."

That man, Eliza knew to be Mr Trewsbury. He'd already mentioned that he'd seen him with Clara, but this would mean that he had to have been watching him, driving him around, even after Clara's death. That would be the only way that he could know that he had hired her.

"I thought it was harmless, when I noticed him going to a private detective, and a woman no less. So fun, that he would go to a woman, especially after poor Clara. A woman would think it was just a simple case of a disappearance. If she got close I'd just treat her like the rest. After all, no one would take a woman seriously."

Eliza gave a quiet smirk. He'd underestimated her. From the moment she'd been hired she'd never accepted that this was a simple case of a disappearance. She knew she had done her job, and she'd done it well, even if it had landed her here in this room.

"Except you did," he said accusingly to William, narrowing his eyes and full of hate. "You listened to her. You brought her to your offices. You interviewed with her. What sort of a man works with a Woman like that?"

He scowled at William, as if working with her went against the unspoken male code, that men were important and women should be kept quiet and under control. For once William wasn't that bothered, he had the upper hand and he gave a subtle, small smile.

"Well, when you're sitting rotting in your jail cell never to see the light of day again, you can just remember, she put you there." William told him assertively, his eyes gleaming, knowing this would be a metaphorical kick in the teeth.

It did seem to unnerve him, the thought of a woman after all those victims being the key to his downfall. At the same time, he also seemed to notice what was happening in the room. The coolness of his eyes seemed to change as he looked at them.

William was getting the driver exactly where he wanted him, in the middle of the room and far enough away from the door that he could block it. Just a few more steps, that was all William needed so he could reach the doorway before the man if he tried to run.

He watched full of confidence, as it seemed to dawn on the man that getting him talking, and blocking his exit was William's plan all along. The smile on his face seemed to drop just slightly.

"You'll just have to try and catch me then!"

William let off two warning shots from his gun towards the door, to alert the other 6 officers as to where they were rather then to cause harm, and also to startle the man momentarily.

"Down!" William yelled, immediately dropping down to a crouching position on the floor and pulling Eliza down with him, as the man panicked and threw the metal pole he was holding in their direction and went to make his escape. The pole missed hitting them both completely and it clinked against the wall and rolled on stone the floor behind them.

William finally released his grip on Eliza's arm and moved like lighting from his position on the floor to get in front of the man, blocking the door and his escape from the room. They stayed still momentarily eyeing each other, wondering which of them would make the first move. Until the man ran at him, but William was prepared for him and the two of them collided together and instantly started pulling their punches.

Eliza quickly stood up and stepped backwards, pressing her back to the cold wall. She could only helplessly watch the scuffle between William and their suspect as they both threw punches, bump against the open door and the wall and tried to assert dominance.

They stepped back into the shadows of the room and with both of them in black suits and coats, it was only William's height that really set them apart. However, at times Eliza couldn't tell which way round they were fighting.

William still had his gun in his hand, though the man was trying hard to get him to drop it. Every few moments Eliza heard one of then grunt or groan. She couldn't just stand there watching them, arms flying, but equally she couldn't really intervene without getting caught in the crossfire

She looked around and picked up the metal pole. Perhaps she could throw it at them, only there was no guarantee that she wouldn't hit William and make things worse. She lifted up the pole to her shoulder, trying to figure out an angle to throw it, and who was who, and where to aim.

Then suddenly a gun went off, and she dropped the pole in shock at the unexpected loud noisy shot.

She watched both men drop to the floor, and for a moment the only sound was the metal pole she'd dropped rolling on the floor, then a stillness, as no one and nothing in the room moved. Panicked, she couldn't be sure who got shot, or where the shot even came from.

It took a few seconds for her regain her composure and to realize someone was suddenly screaming, a loud, high-pitched, bloodcurdling scream. With confusion, she turned to see that Detective Phillips was no longer lying on the floor out cold, but sitting up and holding his gun low, and in the direction of William and their suspect.

She'd been so focused on the fighting, she hadn't even noticed that Phillips had regained consciousness, seen what was going on and made a shot.

She turned back to look at William and the man to see a suited arm move to make a punch to a face, and the screaming stopped as quickly as it started.

Eventually, William pushed the dead weight of an unconscious man off him and pulled himself up to a seated position. He looked over in the direction of Phillips and noticed him now sitting up, having made the shot to their suspects leg, enough to hurt but not kill.

"Phillips you good?" William called out.

"I'm seeing two of ya Duke, but other then that…" Phillips replied, breathless and still a little dazed.

Phillips let out a heavy sigh then slowly lowered his gun, and with his free hand pressed the back of his head checking for blood. He winced with pain and he felt a lump and wet blood. That was definitely going to hurt for a while.

"Nicely done," William told him sincerely.

William finally looked over at Eliza who was staring, eyes fixed at him, with a mixed look of fear and relief on her face.

"You okay?" He asked in her direction. She could only nod to him, her heart pounding, and still recovering from the sound of the gunshot ringing in her ears.

"Natalie," Eliza suddenly said, as she remembered her in the other room, and she clutched up her long red skirt and moved quickly to go and find her.

William took another second to recover, before he stood up, and walked over to Phillips to check on him. He gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and then he borrowed his tool kit, before following Eliza out the room.

Phillips gingerly stood up, steadying himself he dusted the hay off his trousers and jacket. He collected up the discarded rope that had been tied around Eliza's wrists to tie up their man, who was lying unconscious on the floor. He pulled at the man's tie to remove it and wrapped it around his bullet-wounded leg. The last thing he wanted was this man dying on them from blood lost.

"The doors locked," Eliza told William as he joined her in darkness of the corridor.

William moved her backwards, and unfolded Phillips' tool cloth. He took out the tools he needed, and even in the darkness made light work of the lock, and opened the wooden door for Eliza to rush inside.

"Natalie!" Eliza called, as she rushed into the room and turned to the far corner where Natalie was still huddled and shivering from the cold night.

"It's okay, you're safe." Eliza told her as she bent down to check on her. Her eyes barely opened and she could hardly move she was so frightened.

William had followed Eliza in the room and instantly noticed how pale and cold the young girl looked. He promptly took off his coat and handed it to Eliza to put round Natalie to try and give her some warmth.

Eliza sat down on the floor next to Natalie and hugged her, as Natalie burst into tears of relief that she was safe, then buried her head sobbing into Eliza's shoulder.

Eliza turned and looked at William, giving him a half smile of relief, as he half smiled back and nodded back. She held his eyes just for a moment. Silently they told each other they were all okay. They'd got their man.

Their quiet moment was broken by two uniformed officers rushing in, having missed all the drama.

To be continued….


	14. Part 14

Part 14

Relieved to finally be back at Scotland Yard, Eliza was cold and exhausted as she sat in the soft chair in William's office near the fire trying her best to get warm again. The sun was now pouring into William's office through the windows. It was morning, and no one had been to bed yet.

New officers and another Detective Inspector had been dispatched to the carriage site to start trawling for evidence, relieving William to escorted their suspect back to the station.

Natalie had been taken to hospital to be checked over and recover from her ordeal. Phillips had assured them he was fine, and despite William insisting he to should go get checked at hospital or go home to rest, he was still hanging around the station, while William processed their killer.

Eliza was drained and just wanted to shut her eyes and go to sleep, but equally wanted to wait for William for finish what he was doing. She relaxed into the chair, and allowed herself a moment to rest her eyes, as she took slow breaths.

After booking in their suspect, William had taken a few moments to clean himself up and inspect his own slightly bruised face after the fight. Eliza had stubbornly refused to be checked over or be taken home, but secretly he was glad she'd stayed so he could take her home himself.

He quietly walked into his office carrying a bowl of water and some cloths, so he could check over the nasty looking cut to her head. He turned to notice Eliza sitting in the chair nearest the fire with her eyes shut. He stood still by his office door just watching her, she looked so peaceful, and beautiful sitting there. In his eyes she was like a perfect sleeping angel.

As he stared at her he thought that she might have actually fallen asleep in his chair, and perhaps he should just let her rest, but she'd sensed his presence in the room.

"I'm awake, just resting my eyes," she told him, before opening them and sitting up a bit straighter in her chair. William just sighed and walked over. Why did she have to be so damn stubborn?

"Well, our newest prison guest is all settled in his cell." He replied gently as he approached her.

"Good," she said sounding relieved. She watched William walk over with the bowl and cloths and knew what he was planning to do. He didn't say another word.

He put down the bowl and cloths on the floor of the fireplace and turned the chair from his desk so he was sitting in front of her. He dropped a cloth into the warm water and touched her cheek, turning her head slightly to look at the cut on her temple. The cut itself didn't look too bad but she would certainly have a wonderful bruise as it healed. She had dried blood all down her face, so she needed cleaning up.

"You don't need to look after me William, I'm fine," she told him softly.

"Oh you make that abundantly clear Eliza! Doesn't stop people wanting to." He told her firmly. "Now let me look at that cut, because if I send you home to Ivy looking like this, she is going to kill me."

Eliza chuckled, since Ivy would probably kill them both either way when she found out what had happened over night. She was so exhausted, she didn't fight him, she just sat still and let him clean her up.

William lightly touched the front of her hair moving it slightly out of his way, and gently dabbed at the cut and the dried blood. Eliza winced as the warm water stung slightly.

"Sorry," he said, meeting her eyes then pulling away as he continued and tried to be as gentle as he could.

He carefully wiped clean the cut and washed off all the blood from down her cheek, and then dried it off with a fresh piece of cloth. He did this all whilst trying not to look her in the eyes, which was near impossible because she hadn't stopped looking directly at him with her soft blue eyes, and small smile.

"Have you heard how Honeychurch is?" She asked with concern.

"He's doing fine, someone's still at the hospital with him. A few cuts and bruises, and a headache, but he's doing good. I'll go check on him this afternoon."

"Tell him I said thank you. He didn't want to leave me, said you'd kill him." Eliza smiled jokingly.

"He's probably right." William replied, seriously.

"I knew you'd find me." Eliza said to him, as he picked up her hand to take a look at the rope burn on her wrist.

"I think you have too much faith in my abilities."

"Or maybe just enough." Noticing he wouldn't actually look at her, she tiled her head, making him make eye contact with her.

"I'm fine. I promise," she told him honestly.

William just shook his head and dropped his eyes. She might have had faith he'd find her, but he hadn't been so sure. He didn't even want to think about what might have happened had she not been at the carriage yard, if she'd got it wrong and he hadn't known where else to look.

God she could be so stubborn and annoying, but she was still stronger then a lot of the men he knew. She didn't need his care or concern. He knew she was right and she would always be just fine.

He gently bathed some water over the rope burn on her right wrist, and dried her hand and repeated the same with her other hand. Holding tightly to it, he gently rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

"So what's the prognosis Doctor?" Eliza joked trying to lighten the heavy mood in the room.

"Well I don't think we'll need to cut anything off, so I guess you'll live," William smiled.

"Good to know," she smiled.

William finally looked at her and half laughed back at her. He lifted the hand he was hold to his lips and gave the back of her hand a gentle kiss, and held it tightly for a second before setting it down on her lap.

Eliza caught his eye and held his gaze as he sighed. She thought he might so easily lean in and kiss her, the air was so thick in the room. If she was honest, she was so relieved and exhausted she might have actually let him and even returned it instead of slapping him this time.

Only he didn't even move a muscle. Just held her hand for a few moments more before letting it go.

"Come on, I'll take you home," William said, finally pulling away. Standing up he picked up the bowl of water and the cloths and put them on his desk, he'd clear it away properly later.

"Thank you," Eliza agreed, taking a breath. It was definitely time to go home.

She pushed herself up out of his chair and walked to pick up her hat from his hat stand in the doorway, since it had been retrieved from the abandoned carriage. William put on his coat, having had it returned by Natalie once a blanket had been found for her. He picked up his own hat and followed Eliza out of his office, closing the door behind them.

"So what of our man, what have you arrested him on?" Eliza asked as they walked down the corridor towards the front desk.

"Currently kidnapping, attempted murder, and assault of 3 police officers. It's more then enough to hold him and buy us some time to put the murders of the all those women on him."

William was confident on one fact. This man was not going to ever see any sign of freedom ever again.

"I asked him, about Clara Wilson. He didn't admit to anything for certain, but he said she'd tried to win his affection to save her life. He was also clearly referring to Mr Trewsbury when he was talking about the man who hired me, so I think we can be fairly certain we can include her in the list of women he's killed."

"I'll do that when I get back. I'll have to inform her parent's, did you want to be there when I do?"

"If that's okay. I'd also like to be able to update Mr Trewsbury as well. Let him know we've arrested someone."

"Sure, lets just inform her family first." Eliza nodded her agreement.

"Do we know his name yet?" She was certain now that Barnaby was not his real name. William laughed and she looked at him curiously.

They reached the doors to leave Scotland Yard, and William held the door open for Eliza to walk out in front of him.

"Well, you're going to love this one… Norbert Lovegood." Eliza smirked, no wonder he used a different name. There was one man who certainly was not living up to his name.

*****

If the carriage hadn't been bouncing over the cobbled streets Eliza thought she might actually have fallen asleep on the journey from Scotland Yard to her home. Whist etiquette would ordinary mean William would sit opposite her, on this occasion he'd chosen to sit next to her in the carriage, and kept her close to him. She hated to admit it, but it was actually nice to be able to rest her head on his shoulder and shut eyes, like she really wanted to.

As the carriage pulled up to her house William offered to walk her in, but she declined. It was probably better she dealt with Ivy by herself. If she was lucky she might be able to slip into the house and to her bedroom while Ivy was still downstairs in the kitchen.

She bid William a good day, and then left him in the carriage. He waited for her to open her red front door before signaling to his driver that they could leave.

Eliza closed the door gently behind her, quietly making her way into the house, and placed her hat on the stand, before attempting to creep up the stairs unnoticed.

"What time do you call this?" Ivy asked crossly, startling Eliza as she appeared up the stairs in the hallway from the drawing room. Ivy folded her arms across her body as she caught Eliza on the main stairs, and waited for her response.

Eliza grimaced, she'd been so close to being out of sight. She turned around and slowly walked back down her stairs to stand in the hallway opposite Ivy, who was giving her a rather curious look, waiting for her to answer her question.

"Sorry I was working a case at Scotland Yard..." Eliza started, but stopped when she noticed Ivy's cross look turn to concern as she noticed her injured face, and her rather untidy hair.

"What on earth." Ivy moved closer and touched her hair to move it to look at the cut on her head.

"I'm fine, it's nothing," Eliza told her.

She tried to push Ivy's hand away from her face, which only revealed the burn mark on one of her wrists. Ivy grabbed her hand and inspected the mark, her eyes widened as she noticed all the blood on the sleeve of the jacket.

"Nothing! What on earth have you been doing? Out all night, and coming home covered in blood and looking like you've be pulled through a hedge."

Even Eliza had to admit she probably did look a bit of a state to someone who didn't know what had happened.

"It's been a long night and it's a long story. I'm quite tired actually…." Eliza tried, wanting to escape to her bedroom and perhaps get a little sleep, but she knew it was no use fighting Ivy, who was shaking her head at her dismissing Eliza's attempt to avoid her.

"I'll give you quite tired. Come on down to the kitchen, I'll make you a nice cuppa tea and you can tell me all about it,"

Ivy gave her a serious stare, and then a softer smile. She was not taking no for an answer. So Eliza rolled her eyes slightly before relenting and dutifully following her housekeeper down to the kitchen.

To be continued….


	15. Part 15

Part 15

It was early evening when Eliza Scarlet made her way though the doors of Scotland Yard once again. It had been a few days since they had arrested the carriage driver Norbert Lovegood, and she'd had time to reflect on the case and write up her witness statement for William.

She smiled at Desk Sargent Alfred who waved her through the doors once again with a smile. She liked that Alfred always seemed happy to see her there. As she walked into the main building she saw PC Honeychurch walking towards her in the police corridor, looking far better then the last time she'd seen him.

"Hello PC Honeychurch." Eliza smiled, for once genuinely happy to see him, and that he was okay. He seemed to have recovered from his attack with just a few scrapes left to heal.

"Hello Miss Scarlet," he nodded and smiled, slightly taken back by her polite tone.

If he was being honest, he usually tried to stay clear of Miss Scarlet. To him she was ever so slightly terrifying and he also did not want to anger his boss by doing something wrong when it came to her.

"How are you? How's your head?" she asked, noticing he wasn't wearing his police hat.

"I'm feeling much better Miss." He rubbed the back of his head, which was still a bit sore. "I'm on desk duty for a few more days, but I'll be back out next week." He didn't like desk duty, and was rather eager to return to his normal post walking the streets of London.

"I see Inspector Wellington didn't kill you after all?" She laughed.

"No … He thanked me actually." PC Honeychurch shrugged his shoulders and looked quite proud of himself for once.

"Well you got him my message. He wouldn't have found me or been able to arrest our killer without that. So thank you from me too," she offered sincerely.

It was a slightly awkward moment, as PC Honeychurch seemed pleased, surprised, and embarrassed all at the same time that she was paying him a compliment. Eliza was even sure the young PC was actually blushing slightly.

"I'm glad to see you're okay," Eliza smiled, and he could only laugh back.

"You too Miss," he said, sounding relived that she too was okay.

"Good day Honeychurch," she replied as she walked past him and continued along the corridor.

"Good day Miss Scarlet," he offered with a smile. He turned around to watch her walk down the corridor.

When Eliza arrived at William's office his door was actually open. She stood in the doorway quietly watching him at his desk, his eyes down as he concentrated on his paperwork while rubbing his beard with his knuckles. For once she decided against just letting herself in and instead she knocked gently on the door and waited.

William looked up as he heard her gentle knock, one that was very different to what he was used to hearing from his men. Especially since his door was wide open and they usually just walked straight in. He was surprised to see Eliza standing in the doorway patiently waiting to be seen.

"Eliza," he said softly

"May I?" she asked kindly.

"You don't usually wait to be ask?" William laughed sitting up straighter in his chair.

"I like to keep you on your toes," she shrugged.

They both laughed, and William put his hand out motioning for her to come in and sit down opposite him at the desk.

"How are you?" He asked her, noticing she looked a little better then the last time he'd seen her. He could just make out some bruising on the side of her head, though she'd tried to hide it with a wave of hair over the side of her forehead and a little extra make up.

"I'm fine," she smiled honestly, as she sat down in the chair opposite him and made herself comfortable.

"How's Ivy?" William questioned. He'd not been by her house since he'd dropped Eliza off that morning. He didn't fancy facing Ivy's fury at what had happened to Eliza, even if it wasn't entirely his fault.

"Oh you know, I'd probably give my house a wide berth for a few more days. She's still a little mad about the whole kidnapping. Speaking of which, I thought I'd bring you my statement."

Eliza pulled out some folded paper from her brown handbag and passed it to him. He took it from her, and added it to his pile of work to look over.

"I saw PC Honeychurch in the corridor, he seems rather pleased with himself."

"Well, I mentioned to the chief that we wouldn't have arrested our man without him, so he'll likely get a commendation," William grumbled slightly at the thought. Honeychurch wasn't exactly the most experienced of officers, but he mostly meant well.

"That was very good of you," Eliza told him seriously.

William shrugged, he still wasn't exactly pleased that Honeychurch had left Eliza alone, even if it had meant that he'd got her message, but at least everyone was okay.

"How is your latest prison guest?" Eliza enquired with a smile.

"Well, Mr Lovegood still seems to think he's getting out of prison," William said with a laugh.

"Really?" Eliza queried, wondering how on earth he could think that.

"Honestly, I think I could put all our evidence to him and he'd still wake up each morning, thinking this is the day I'm going to release him back into the world," Eliza shivered at the thought.

"He is for want of a better phase, crazy," William told her.

"Crazy?" Eliza asked with a teasing smile. "Is that your professional opinion?"

"Trust me, he is on a one way ticket to the gallows."

Eliza stopped for a moment, unsure if she wanted to know the answer to her question, but curiosity always got the better of her.

"Do we know many?" She asked, referring to the number of women he had killed. William breathed a heavy sigh.

"Honestly, no. We can't identify all the women in those pictures, and I'm certain there were more then just those that he had photographs of. He's saying nothing, cause he's delusional enough to think that he's getting out of jail if he keeps quiet, but we've done what we can to give those that we know of with families closure," he told her honestly. "This guy is just a loner, who clearly didn't get enough attention as a child. He has a massive chip on his shoulder and either thought he was better then everyone else or never got the respect he thought he deserved."

"Well that's no reason to go around killing women."

"Agreed."

"Duke," a uniformed officer stepped into Williams office, "there's a message here." The officer walked over to the desk and held out the note for William to read it.

"Send Phillips to take a look at this." William told him as he looked over the note.

"I can't Duke, he's gone for the day," the officer said, as if William should have known that Detective Phillips had already finished and left the station.

"Already?" William asked confused, as he pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time, it was only a little after 6.

"About 20 minutes ago sir."

"Fine," William sighed. "Send Davy." The officer took the note back, nodded, gave Eliza a smile then walked back out.

"Didn't realize we were employing part timers," William grumbled. Eliza noted the time on the clock behind William's desk and gave a smile.

"Do you have time to come with me somewhere?"

"Why?" William asked, curious as to where she would want to take him.

"I just want to show you something," she said innocently.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They left Scotland Yard and took a carriage out to Soho. This time Eliza was rather more careful to take a note of who the driver was, and to also make a mental note of what he looked like. William was rather confused with where Eliza was taking them, since she'd refused to elaborate further on the way.

They pulled up to a row of restaurants and William followed her to an open doorway with stairs that led down.

The downstairs opened up to large dark a restaurant with a number of circular tables with oil lamps lighting them, and plenty of guests already dinning. There was a large wooden dance floor in the middle of the room, tables all round it, and a small stage at the far end where a young lady was singing accompanied by a piano.

Eliza requested a table and the waitress found them one in the far corner with 4 chairs and walked them over. William handed the waitress his coat and hat, and both he and Eliza sat down next to each other facing the stage and ordered some drinks.

"So are you going to tell me what we're doing here?" William asked curiously, once the waitress had left.

"You see that lady singing, she's very good isn't she," Eliza said, fixing her eyes on the stage.

"I guess, why?" William replied with a shrug.

He looked at the pretty brunette on center stage, wearing a cream satin evening dress with matching long gloves, who was singing beautifully to the room. Whilst she was certainly very pretty, he wasn't sure if he was supposed to recognize her, given that Eliza seemed to know who she was.

"Notice anything about the pianist?" Eliza asked, smiling curiously as she looked back at William.

She kept her eyes on him as he looked over and noticed Detective Phillips, who was playing the piano. His eyes were dancing between the piano keys he was playing and the beautiful lady singing, with a beaming smile on his face, looking like they were the only two people in the room and she was singing just for him.

"She's Phillip's lady friend." Eliza told William when he turned back to look at her questioningly. "He moved here with her when she got her job here. That's why he's moved to London. He, on occasion, accompanies her singing when the restaurant pianist has a night off," Eliza told him, with a smile.

"How do you know all this?" William asked, looking at her in amazement.

"People talk," she shrugged "I listen. You should try it," Eliza told him with a smile. William rolled his eyes, he didn't have time to listen to people talking, he had actual work to be getting on with, and lots of it.

"So that's what this is in aid of?" William realized. Certainly, he'd probably not been as welcoming to Phillips as he could of, but he was no different to him then any of his other officers. Could she really blame him for being cautious with the people around him and not being too trusting of his newest officers?

"He's your third new Detective in as many months. I know you're still a little bruised by everything that happened with my fathers case, but that's no reason not to give Detective Phillips a chance. He seems nice. I like him. Plus he a very good shot, and that might just come in handy," she said pointedly.

She would never admit it, but she wanted to know William had someone by his side who would be able to keep him alive, should the situation arise.

William narrowed his eyes on her, studying her face whilst trying to figure out her game plan here. He wasn't sure why she was putting herself out for this Detective rather then the others that he'd weeded out and had barely lasted a fortnight with him.

"You know your little tricks won't work on him soon," he teased with narrowed eyes, and cheeky smile. He wondered if she thought this detective would continue to be easy to get round. That was certainly something he and Phillips would be discussing should he stick around.

"Oh you know me, I'll find new ones. I always do with you." Eliza was still smiling at him, and he immediately knew he'd lost this battle. She would always find a way to get round him some how.

Eliza turned away to watch at the singer, and rested her chin on her hand. The sleeve on her jacket dropped slightly and William noticed the burn mark on her wrist still looking red and raw and stared at it a moment. He hated that she'd got hurt.

He moved his gaze to her face, watching while she wasn't looking, lost in her natural smile that lit up her eyes as she enjoyed the music. He slowly reached out and pulled her hand towards him, she jumped a little surprised at his touch and looked at him as he took hold of her hand then gently rubbed his thumb over the burn mark. She let him hold it for a few moments as she watched him carefully, wondering what he was doing.

He looked up, staring at her with those soft blue eyes, and she held his gaze momentarily. Remembering that there were people around them, Eliza quickly felt self-conscious and pulled her hand back, then moved her sleeve down to hide the mark again. She turned her attention back to the music.

William let out a slow sad sigh as he kept his eyes on her. She always pulled away from him. Would she ever be able to see him as more then just her friend? Could she not see how much he really cared about her?

"I suppose you're expecting me to buy you dinner now we're here," he grumbled, with fake annoyance after a few moments.

He was trying a safe subject of conversation and glancing at the menu on the table. He'd knew he would have bought her a hundred dinners if it meant she was spending time with him.

"Not at all. I'm buying you dinner," Eliza replied.

Turning back to look at him, she once again rested her chin on her hand and was feeling very pleased with herself. She beamed at him, waiting for him to challenge her on that suggestion, knowing that he most certainly would.

"Excuse me?" William sat up and folded his arms across his chest, ready to argue. He was entirely certain how he felt about the idea of her buying him dinner, and it wasn't happening. That was not how this worked. Under no circumstances did a woman buy a man dinner.

"Well, Mr Trewsbury is paying me rather handsomely to keep him informed on Clara's case, and he's very happy with our progress. So technically he's buying us dinner. If that makes you feel better," she added with a shrug of her shoulders.

That didn't make him feel any better, but he sensed Eliza wasn't going to be budging on this. William knew would just have to get to the bill before she did.

The waitress brought over their drinks and they both returned their attention to the singer on the stage. They listen to the next few songs clapping at the end of each song, and again when she announced she was taking a break and would be back in 15 minutes.

They watched as Phillips stood up from the piano and held his hand out to escort his lady Emily off the stage. He could barely keep his eyes off her, his pride evident all across his face.

Phillips was surprised as he crossed the room with Emily and saw them sitting at their table. He left the singers side and walked over to them. He was sure this couldn't be a coincidence that they were dinning at the restaurant where Emily was singing.

"Duke, Miss Scarlet," Phillips said with a nod, as he met them at their table. "I'm surprised to see you both here."

"I had a feeling that Emily might be singing tonight, so I figured I would drag him away from the office," Eliza smiled. William rolled his eyes, knowing full well she was never going to do him any favours with keeping his colleagues respect.

"I told you she was good." Phillip's face was beaming and his voice full of pride.

"She's wonderful," Eliza agreed with him, as Emily walked up beside Phillips and place an arm around him.

"Leonard, are you going to introduce me?" Emily asked brightly, as she smiled as happy as Phillips was.

"Ah, Emily, this is Miss Scarlet, and my boss." Phillips gave the introductions as he slipped an arm round Emily's waist and pulled her close to his side, his eyes beaming at her. Emily leaned in rested her head on his shoulder.

"Hello," Emily offered, looking towards Eliza with a warm smile.

"I'm Eliza," she replied with a friendly smile.

"Please to meet you, and you're Duke right?" Emily asked cautiously, looking at William, checking she had the right person.

"Yes that's me," William confirmed, raising his eyes and wondering if he should tell her to use his actual name. He might not have minded the lads at the station using their chosen nickname for him, but outside of Scotland Yard, it didn't feel as appropriate.

"You should join us for a drink." Eliza offered motioning to the free chairs at the table. Phillips looked nervously over in William's direction, looking for his approval that it would be okay, and William just nodded.

"Please do, Eliza's paying after all," William said sarcastically, as he took a gulp of his drink, and narrowed his eyes at Eliza, knowing exactly what she was doing.

Eliza gave a big smile that her job was done as Len and Emily sat down to join them at their table. They had caught their killer, and she had perhaps even helped Phillips out with William just like he had asked.

The End


End file.
